Illusion Collides
by Clairavance
Summary: "There are no rules in war, you idiot." Julian said icily. "All that matters is who survives." The promised sequel to Image Becomes Reality.
1. Motivation

**A/N: Be prepared, my writing **_**sometimes**_** blurs and the characters I dish out often cross lines they shouldn't. I'm having trouble caging my original characters to prevent their intervention with my fanfiction, they just don't understand that they can't do that until there's a category for them, too. Except for Mikael (known by about a dozen other different names, but it all boils down to the same guy), he's a wild one and does what he pleases ;)**

**The follow-up to **_**Image Becomes Reality**_** (unfortunately you **_**have**_** to read it to get what's going on)**

**~...~**

_Muse: Never Surrender - Jason Shyboy (DMC4 theme)  
_**~...~**

It was difficult to shake off the dizziness that heaved down her eyelids. There was a faint throbbing in her temples, and her bones felt like sludge but Jenny fought _hard_ against the effect. There was a fleeting moment of complete and utter silence, and then thunder droned around her. She forced her eyes open, wider and wider. The throbbing increased. She was lying on something hard, and it chilled her skin where it touched her.

"You okay there, goldy locks?" Mikael's voice said, and Jenny instinctively turned toward it.

Her eyes _were_ open. Mikael was crouching down beside her, light blue eyes crumpled in silent laughter. An orb swirling with pastel colours hovered above his open palm. The light it provided was barely enough to illuminate them both. Jenny whipped her head around, glancing at the solid darkness around them. A constant draft froze her hands and feet. She had the distressing sensation that they were underground.

"My teleporting skills are a bit rusty. I don't need to use it that often. You are okay, aren't you?" Mikael pressed.

Jenny slowly surveyed her surroundings. Thunder droned around her again, making her teeth clatter together. She pressed herself up off the ground and unsteadily climbed to her feet. Were those train tracks?

"What... are we in the subway tunnel?" Jenny asked, glancing from one side to the other in alarm.

"Hmm, it's the only place nearby that was dark enough for me," Mikael said, gracefully straightening to his full height. "I have sensitive eyes."

"_What do you want_?" Jenny stepped out of his reach when he extended his hand to her.

"What I want is simple. I want Andrea," Mikael said impatiently.

"I don't know where she is!" said Jenny.

"You _asked,_" Mikael said, giving her a funny look. "I know you don't know where she is, but I do."

"Then why don't you go get her?" Jenny sobered a little.

"If you know Julian at all, you'll understand that it's not as easy as walking in and demanding a compromise. He's a conniving little sneak. Always has to complicate things." Mikael gestured with his hand and then dropped it to his side with a feeble sigh.

"So... what, you're going to hold me hostage until Julian decides to trade Andrea for me?" Jenny asked, fighting to hold back tears of panic. How did this happen? How did she get into this situation?

"A trade?" Mikael repeated, and shook his head. "Have you not been following what's going on?"

"What?" Jenny asked uncertainly. She didn't really want to hear it because the look in his eyes told her more than she wanted to know.

"We've passed that border a long time ago, goldy locks. There won't _be_ any trade."

Jenny closed her eyes, using all her control to remain calm. "It's _Jenny_." She opened her eyes and frowned at him. "Julian won't say no if you proposed a trade."

"'Course he won't," Mikael said and tapped his head with a finger. "But I don't suffer from a severe case of stupidity, either. Why hand you over to him if I can use you as my ammunition?"

"You're not going to _use_ me," Jenny said hotly.

"Oh, yes I am. Unless you and I come to an agreement to help one another," Mikael suggested.

"What can I possibly do to help you?" Jenny asked, taking another distrustful step away from him.

"Uh, let's see. Do what I say, play by my rules, and don't betray me? Easy enough to remember and keep to, I believe."

"Okay. _Why _should I help you?" Jenny said.

"You want your friends back, correct? In one piece and preferably with their souls intact," Mikael said and shrugged. "I can make your every wish come true, Jenny. But in return I ask that you trust me."

"You'll get my friends back?" Jenny repeated, stumped, and suppressed a hopeful spark. "I had the impression you're not capable of caring about others."

"Oh, don't get me wrong," Mikael said with a curt little laugh. "They're friends of Andrea. I wouldn't give a damn about them otherwise." He leaned forward and gave her a charming grin. "If _you_ weren't a friend of hers, you'd be dead right now."

Jenny's mouth went dry at his words. He was still holding his hand toward her, his fingers twitching in a coaxing 'come here' gesture. Jenny didn't budge.  
"What if he kills her first?" Jenny asked, and closed her eyes when her head throbbed dangerously again.

Mikael dropped the cajoling smile from his face and caught her chin in his hand. He brushed a fingertip from her forehead down to the tip of her nose, and Jenny flinched away with a deep frown. "He won't. If she dies, you die, it's that simple."

"You call that _simple_?" Jenny exclaimed, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand. A peculiar coolness spread through her head like a soothing stream, and while the pounding subsided Mikael's gaze became quietly satisfied.

"You'll be the spoils of war, Jenny. All this is happening because of you two. Now, are you going to come with me, or do I have to carry you again?"

Jenny hesitated, and burst into motion when Mikael took a threatening step toward her. She kept at a distance from him as they walked down the black tunnel, sending cautious glances at him ever so often. Their feet crunched across gravel and the sound echoed up against the walls.

"Where are we going?" Jenny asked nervously after her body had reflexively stiffened for the hundredth time upon hearing the thunderous metal shriek of a nearby passing train.

"To my lair," Mikael drawled. The way his lips twitched up in the corners and the dancing light in his eyes told Jenny that he found her fear of him entertaining.

There was a large hole in the wall, and Mikael took hold of her hand before Jenny could dodge his touch. He ducked into it, and pulled her with him. He led her down a very black, handmade corridor to a camouflaged rock door situated at the end. Mikael pushed at it with his hand, and it swung open noiselessly.

"Are we in the shadow world?" Jenny asked, wrenching her hand from his grasp.

Mikael laughed. The orb hovering in front of him did a dazzling display at feigning lightning, blazing through the room in a million bright streaks. Fire reared to life in torches mounted on the walls, and Jenny took another uncertain step deeper into the cavernous room.

There was a shabby looking sofa bed shoved against one wall with what she guessed had once been a blanket. There was a small bar fridge, its door hanging skew on one hinge, and a large woven rug in orange and black colours in the middle of the floor. Old newspapers from years ago lay deteriorating on the ground, and empty rusted cans lay strewn about. The room smelled of damp neglect.

"No," Mikael said, dropping onto the sofa bed with a content sigh. "We're in the city of lost angels. Or under it, to be more exact."

Jenny stared at him in stupor. Angels couldn't possibly live here, and if they did Jenny thought heaven was very overrated. Or maybe it was hell...  
"We're in Los Angeles? We're still on earth?" Jenny asked, bewildered.

"Have you been taking in anything that's happened today?" Mikael leaned back on his elbows, staring at her in dismay. "We are at war. Everything done from hereon has to be a strategic move."

Jenny chewed her lip, and vulnerably glanced around the room again."Yes, I understand that..."

"Do you really?" Mikael said sceptically. "You're taking it a lot calmer than I'd thought you would."

"He'll come after me. War or no war," Jenny said, suddenly very tired. She sank down onto the edge of the bed, staring miserably at the uneven walls. "I'm never going to escape this."

"How this game goes depends on what pawn you pick to be," Mikael said indifferently. Jenny wondered if he'd heard what she'd said. "Play my prisoner, and I'll incarcerate you. Play the hostage, and I'll use you as my shield. Play the victim, and I'll play the murderer."

Jenny got up and backed away from him. "If you hurt me, Julian will hunt you down..."

"Or, you can choose to play my accomplice and fight for your freedom," Mikael said attentively. "I do rather prefer the latter. I don't have patience for weaklings."

"I'm not weak." Jenny found her voice, taken aback by the unprovoked insult and mystified at her own response to it.

"Good," said Mikael indulgently, but he shook his head.

"I'm not _weak,_" Jenny repeated, and felt a surge of anger beat through her veins. "You don't know what I've had to go through. You don't know what it's been like."

"Of course not. It must have been terrible. All the torments he put you through, all the pain he caused, all your loved ones you lost because of him. I'm sure no one will blame you for throwing in the towel. Anybody else would have," he said derisively.

"Shut up," Jenny said, staring at him wildly.

"You ought to be rewarded for giving it your best shot, though. Not many people would have lasted as long as you have. Even if Julian did conquer in the end." Mikael carried on ruthlessly.

"_Shut up!_" Jenny cried out, flattening herself against the wall when he sat up.

"I mean, you're just a girl. A mere mortal." Mikael got to his feet and walked over to her.

Every step she took away he matched with a step closer, and they began to circle one another in a slow, strange sort of dance. Mikael's expression was calculated, a predatory gleam in his eyes. He was purposely aggravating her, to intimidate her perhaps – Jenny couldn't make heads or tails of him. He was as capricious as Julian, and doubly as frightening.

"Julian is a god. Stuff of legend. You never had a chance, Jenny. You knew that from the beginning, didn't you?" Mikael continued, and their eyes locked in silent battle.

"I don't know," Jenny whispered,

"You don't know," Mikael said sarcastically. "Of course you knew. What could you possibly have done to fend off a devil? _Nothing_. How long did it take you to realize this? How many people had to die – how many lives were destroyed because of him?"

Jenny didn't answer. She was too angry to speak. It was a white hot fury that coursed through her and set every fibre in her body on fire. She was aware of a constant tremor racing under her skin, and Jenny gritted her teeth, looking back at Mikael with blazing green eyes.

"And they died for nothing, right? Because Julian had it all in the bag from the word go. You _lost_, Jenny. Nothing you did was good enough, because Julian was simply better."

"I _tried,_" Jenny snapped at him.

"Oh. You _tried,_" Mikael repeated, and stepped up to her. Jenny tried to step away and came up short against the wall behind her. Her breath hissed in, and her stomach churned with icy knots of fear. He leaned a hand against the wall and drew closer to her, holding her gaze evenly. "Trying didn't save Tom, now did it?"

Jenny felt her eyes scrunch up and she fought back painful frustrated tears.  
"I couldn't save him," Jenny said shakily, another wave of anger crashing over her. Her own vulnerability made her see red.

"Why not?" Mikael demanded.

"It was_ impossible_! How could I have known what was going to happen? I couldn't possibly have gotten him out of that car in time..." Jenny trailed off at Mikael's smirk.

"When the prize is more worthy than the angels at God's feet, the fight for their cause will not end when the prize is taken out of sight. Ask yourself, Jenny. Was Tom worth the fight? Is his memory worth the struggle?"

The angry fumes were subsiding into a steady, cold burn, and Jenny's mind became clear.

"Mankind has been given the gift to move mountains. _You_ could have wiped Julian off the face of the earth, if you had the knowledge, the nerve, the _strength_. But instead you let him manipulate you, you allowed him to deceive you, you were too weak to..."

"_I'm not weak,_" Jenny said quietly, filled with sudden perfect conviction. Something was building up inside of her, something solid, and fiery, and furious.

Mikael cocked his head to the side, intrigued. "You let him get away with murder. You let him claim you. How is that not weak?"

"I won't let him win," Jenny said fiercely.

"You mean, you won't let him win _again_?" He said menacingly.

"I won't let him get away with this. He hurt my friends... he took Tom away from me. I will never forgive him for that. He'll pay for what he's done, even if..." Jenny's voice was picking up strength with every word.

She caught her breath when Mikael softly put a finger to her lips. A triumphant smirk curled over his face, and his eyes were a deep, heavenly blue. His voice was filled with delight when he spoke.

"Take hold of this fire, and the next time you are face to face with him - use it."


	2. Pizza Demon

**~...~**

Mikael turned away from her abruptly and strolled across the room. Jenny was glad for the space between them, and slowly exhaled the breath she'd held in.  
He fell back on the sofa bed, and a cloud of dust blew into the air when his body made contact with the downy surface. Jenny wrinkled her nose.

"I don't think that will happen any time soon, however. He has to get his army drafted up first. That might take about, oh say... a week. Maybe a month," Mikael said, propping his arms lazily under his head. The smooth muscles across his chest and abdomen twitched as he shifted into a more comfortable position."Depending how persuasive he is, he might actually succeed in winning over everyone who initially wanted him dead."

"An actual army?" Jenny asked, going very still.

"What's a war without warriors?" Mikael said carelessly, and sneezed.

"Bless you," Jenny said automatically.

"Ha. Funny," Mikael said.

Jenny heard another train echo through the tunnels, and glanced around the room."What is this place?"

Mikael didn't answer, and when Jenny looked over at him his eyes were closed. His chest rose and fell rhythmically, his breathing deep and peaceful. He looked very much like an angel when there was no trace of mischief on his face. There was a deceiving innocence that permeated from his still form. Jenny felt her cheeks flush guiltily when she realized she was staring at him, and she preoccupied herself by inspecting the walls instead.

There were faint lines carved in the rock. At first Jenny tried to make out whether it was pictures, or maybe even runes. She had to take a step back to get a better view of it. Names and numbers, in very bad handwriting. Jenny traced one of them until she could finally decipher the letters.

"Nine Jude?" Jenny said, confused, squinting at it uncertainly. That didn't make sense.

"_Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you',_" Mikael quoted.

Jenny stiffened in fright and stepped away from the wall. "Andrea said you were named for him," she said, studying the writing again. "Did she write that?"

"Hmm. She went through a stage where she was big on the scriptures. I told her to put that one down," Mikael said, and Jenny looked over at him. His eyes were still closed, and he hadn't moved an inch.

"I wouldn't have taken you for the religious type," said Jenny.

"I'm not. I couldn't give a rat's ass what Michael and Lucifer got up to. That's their story. _This_ is mine."

"That makes absolutely no sense," Jenny said, frowning at the wall for another moment before turning to him. "If Julian is getting an army together, shouldn't you be doing the same?"

Mikael breathed out deeply. "That depends. Are you hungry?"

"Pardon?" Jenny asked. The question stumped her, and she wondered whether he was joking around. It seemed to be a very random thing to bring up while they were discussing war and religion.

"I can't stop eating." Mikael shot up off the bed and smoothed his hands through silver blonde hair.

Jenny watched him pluck a shadow off the wall. An actual shadow; it flickered in the light of the flames, shifting and changing. His fingertips somehow took hold of it, and Mikael gave it a good hard shake with both hands. The shadow unfolded into black leather, and Mikael shrugged on the long trench coat.

He paused when he saw her staring in stunned amazement, and his gaze shifted away almost guiltily. "Come with me," Mikael said, seizing hold of her wrist.

The fire in the room went out, and Jenny followed him blindly through the darkness. It was so quiet that she was almost certain he could hear her heartbeat.  
It was a pleasant relief when lights finally came into view. Mikael lifted her onto a deserted platform, and they ascended a paper strewn staircase to emerge onto a broad sidewalk in the cool night air. There was a light drizzle falling. Dark clouds obscured the stars above, a silver crescent moon peeking down at them.

Jenny hugged her arms to her chest and shivered, glancing around anxiously. She kept waiting for Julian to jump out from one of the shadowy nooks and grab her. Part of her was expecting him to. She had that unnerving sensation of eyes on her. Mikael must have sensed her unease, because he put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him.

The twinge she had to hit him and run screaming for help into the streets lasted less than a second. His touch was surprisingly gentle and warm, and it inexplicably made her feel safe.

Jenny hadn't felt safe in a while. It was nice.

Mikael steered her into a store with a large sign reading _Lucifers Pizza_ in bloody letters. It was comfortably warm inside, and the appetizing smell of pizzas wrapped around her. Lady Gaga's _Poker Face_ was playing from a hidden stereo, and there was a cue of people standing in wait at the counter.

"So. Feel like anything in particular?" Mikael asked, sliding his hands into his jeans pockets and scanning the menus mounted above the counter. He looked down at her expectantly.

"I'm not very hungry," Jenny admitted, eyeing the montage of red tiles decorating one wall, spelling out _From the Divine to the Damned Good. _Little figurines with bobbing horned devil heads lined one shelf, staring back at her with beady black eyes. Jenny shifted uneasily.

"Hmpf," Mikael said with blasé. "Not yet, you're not."

"Is this... normal?" Jenny asked uncertainly.

"What do you mean?" Mikael asked, leaning closer to her with genuine confusion.

"I..." Jenny said and waved her hand helplessly. "Aren't we supposed to be hiding out, or preparing for war, or trying to find Andrea and my friends?"

"This _is_ me preparing for war, sweet cheeks," Mikael said in amusement. "I'm fuelling up."

"With pizza?" Jenny asked tentatively.

"What's wrong with pizza?" Mikael said shrewdly.

Jenny stared back at him in total shock. "You can't be serious," she snapped.

"Lighten up, Jenny," Mikael frowned back at her.

"No, you're acting like this is nothing. Like it's just some sort of game!"

"Keep your voice down," Mikael chided when several heads turned their way. He offered a slight, apologetic smile and a brief wave of dismissal at them. "Unless you want to announce the end of the world and have disorder break out."

"The-the end..." Jenny fell silent, fuming.

"Well, yeah, I mean no. Sort of," Mikael shrugged awkwardly. He grabbed her hand suddenly and tugged her past the line of customers.

"'Scuse me," he said, cutting in front of the line and leaning onto the counter with his elbows. "We'd like..." He said, glanced at Jenny, and smiled sadistically. "A double _Lust_, and two Gluttony's."

"Sure, coming right up." The boy behind the counter had a pleasant face, and didn't seem flustered at all at Mikael's rude behaviour.

The person behind them, however, had a bone to pick with him. The man was tall and burly, and tapped Mikael on the shoulder roughly.  
"Hey, get back in line, buddy!"

Jenny bit her lip when Mikael sent a withering look over his shoulder. The guy wasn't as young or fit as Mikael, but he was twice as tall and towered over them.

"Dude, I'm management," Mikael lied smoothly, a note of authority in his voice.

"I don't care who you think you are, buddy..." The man started.

"Fuck off before I rip your fucking heart out, _buddy_," Mikael turned to face the man squarely, his voice as cold as ice and his words silencing the other mumbled complaints in the room.

The man backed down quickly, afraid. Jenny herself had gone rigid at the sudden explosion. She was almost too scared to breathe in the terrified silence that followed.

She looked at the other customers. They, in turn, were all staring at Mikael hesitantly. A couple of people in the far back of the store actually turned around and left.

"Is there a problem here?" The boy behind the counter asked with an edge to his tone, and Mikael finally tore his glare from the man to turn around.

Jenny's every muscle was strained with panic, but Mikael's shoulders slouched and the fury in his physique submitted into graceful repose.  
"A bit high strung, is all," Mikael said, annoyed. "Hey, Ronnie. Met my new squeeze yet?"

The boy's friendly brown eyes shifted to Jenny, and his worried frown turned into surprise. An uncertain smile tugged at his lips, making his face seem innocently round and childish.

"You're kidding," he said, and squinted at Jenny in awe. "I thought you were Anny." He blinked, and sent an alarmed look at Mikael. "I mean, uh...who's Anny, right?"

Jenny glanced from one to the other in disgust. "I'm not... we're not together. I don't know what gave you that idea," Jenny said the last to Mikael with as much scorn as she could muster. It wasn't much – her heart was still beating unpleasantly hard against her ribcage from his outburst.

Mikael groaned dejectedly. "This is Jenny. Jenny, this is Ronnie. He's the head of my crew... unless someone's dethroned you of your hard earned title."

"Oh, they wish," Ronnie arched his eyebrows animatedly. "So, ah, out on a date?"

"_I_ wish," Mikael said, and Jenny felt her cheeks burn red. "Nah. Business."

All trace of fun and cheerfulness disappeared from Ronnie's face. "Oh, yeah?"

"Julian," Mikael said.

Ronnie slammed his fist on the counter. "Damn it. I _knew_ he was up to something - all that crap about lying low and evading his elders." Ronnie dropped his voice, and nodded his head at Jenny. "She a 'shifter?"

"A what?" Jenny said.

"No," Mikael said. "We're playing the I-got-what-you-want game."

"Again?"

"The stakes are a bit higher."

"How high?" Ronnie asked, glancing at Jenny suspiciously.

"Uh... human civilisation high," Mikael grimaced. "Possibly."

"_Dude,_" Ronnie went pale. "You're going to get screwed over."

"You mean _you_ are. I'm unbeatable," Mikael boasted.

"Yeaaahhh... I'll get the word out."

Jenny had been trying to follow the conversation, and now her mind got stuck on one word. _Again_.

"Good," Mikael said, and straightened up. "Now gimme my pizza before it gets cold."

Ronnie obeyed, and Mikael loaded the boxes into his arms. "Put it on my tab."

"What tab?" Ronnie called after him, and Mikael laughed as they stepped back out into the rain.

"You've been through this before with Andrea?" Jenny demanded.

Mikael had opened the top box and was sniffing the hot steam wafting out into the night air.

"Mmm-mm. Sort of," Mikael said, and licked his lips.

"Well... tell me what happened."

Mikael picked up the pace, but Jenny kept in stride with him.

"Curiosity killed the cat, you know," Mikael said warningly.

"I'm not a cat," Jenny said.

"No, you're more like a little tiger," Mikael said, and did a ridiculously good imitation of a growl.

Jenny felt heat spread up her neck and cross her cheeks. "Are you going to tell me or not?"

"How about we talk about that over supper?" Mikael said.

"Really?" Jenny asked, surprised.

"Well, yeah. It makes for good conversation, and bridges the awkward gap of not knowing what to talk about," Mikael said with an innocent shrug. "I'm surprised Andrea didn't tell you herself. She loves telling stories."

"How did you know that guy? Ronnie, I mean?" Jenny asked, glancing back over her shoulder at the pizza store.

Mikael glared up at the sky and sighed heavily. He mumbled something in an archaic language, turning burning blue eyes down to his arms. It was a beautiful sound, almost like spoken music, but the tone of his voice was condescending. He shook one arm angrily.

"I come here all the time," he grunted to Jenny's curious stare.

"I thought you were trapped in the shadow world?"

"Pfft," Mikael said, and a frown played across his brow. "I haven't been back in that hellhole since I last saw Andrea. A long time ago."

"You've been _here_?" Jenny asked. "Does Anny know?"

"Hell no. I have to abide by certain rules if I want to roam earth," Mikael said, and his face moulded into disappointment. "I'm condemned not to manipulate the elements of this world. It sucks. I hate rain."

"What other rules – like hiding out in the dark?" Jenny asked. She knew she was hanging onto his lips like a child being told a fairytale, but she couldn't help herself.

"I'm not hiding. It's a preference," Mikael gave her a playful look. "I have to be on good behaviour, though. And," Mikael shrugged solemnly. "I'm forbidden to love the daughters of men. It's the best deal I could strike up with the Big Guy. I'm living on rent, and my obedience serves as my payment. One screw up and I'm banned."

"You used your power in the tunnel," Jenny said timidly, looking at his trench coat pointedly.

"That's different," Mikael said, and explained to her confused frown. "I'm not allowed to control things that have an influence on other people. Like the weather, for example. It's not my playground, I'm not a god here. This," Mikael glanced at his coat, "means nothing."

"Okay," Jenny said.

His answer arose another question, though; what exactly was his purpose to be on earth, if the reason wasn't to be with Andrea? Jenny was about to voice her thoughts when Mikael abruptly halted in his tracks beside a silver Nissan sports car parked on the sidewalk. He let out a low whistle.

"Well, isn't that a beauty."

"Um," Jenny said awkwardly, watching in disconcerted awareness when Mikael peeked through the window of the car. "What are you..."

"Here, hold this," Mikael shoved the pizza boxes into her arms.

A second later glass shattered, and Jenny jolted away from the car when the alarm went off. Mikael leaned in through the broken window, and then there was a quick silence. He turned back to her and gallantly held the door for her.

"Weren't we just talking about _good_ deeds, or did I imagine that?" Jenny asked.

"Hey, I'm just a devil. I can't help myself," Mikael said defiantly and circled the car. "Get in."

Jenny glanced around wearily, and uncomfortably slid into the passenger seat. "This is wrong. This is someone else's car. They probably worked very hard to get it."

"Oh, Jenny, I don't give a damn," Mikael chuckled. "B'sides, they've probably got three more of these in different colours, so don't feel too bad."

"You're insane," Jenny said when he started the engine.

"So I've been told," Mikael muttered.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Somewhere romantic," Mikael said mockingly, giving her a wayward look before pulling off with a squeal of wheels.

Jenny gripped the pizzas closer to her and pressed her feet into the floor. Lights blurred past them too fast, and the wind was chilly as it whipped her hair around her.

"Could you slow down?" Jenny shouted over the roaring engine.

"For you, sure, sweet cheeks," Mikael said.

"_Jenny,_" Jenny said, giving him a look. "I'm not your sweet cheeks."

"Whatever you say, Jenny."

Their speed slowed down, and Jenny found the nerve to put the boxes down by her feet. She reached for her seatbelt in the dark, her hands fumbling as they pulled up at a red traffic light.

"_Shit_,"Mikael spat with sudden rage – and then Jenny was yanked out of the car.

For a bewildered moment, Jenny thought it was a hi-jack and she waited to be either thrown to the pavement, or to feel the cool metal of a gun pressed to her temple. There were cries of confusion and terror from the surrounding people wandering the sidewalk. Jenny saw several bolt away from her, and then she was staring up into eyes as deep and brilliant as the blue fjord glaciers of Norway.

Fingers caressed her face as softly as twilight, pure agitation behind each touch, and the eyes searched her face feverishly. "Jenny, did he hurt you? Did he touch you?"

Jenny stopped breathing, and her mind stalled in shock. She knew she ought to step away from him, but the smouldering look in those eyes melted her to the spot.

"I thought you'd do something stupid like this," Mikael's words crashed through the trance, and Julian's gaze lifted from Jenny to fix on his opponent.  
His hold around her wrists increased by a fraction, and Julian gently pulled her behind him.

"Either you're severely retarded, or you're deliberately pissing me off," Mikael continued. Jenny watched him lean back against the car with his hands, long legs crossed in a relaxed stance.

"Are we playing by the rules? Or maybe you're just eager to die," Mikael said, and laughed coldly.

Julian stood tall without flinching. Jenny felt like curling into a ball and crying. There was a frostiness permeating from Julian, a deadly menacing aura, but it paled in comparison to the vibes Mikael was blasting off. It was a heavy feeling that threatened to turn her legs into sponge beneath her.

"There are no rules in war, you idiot," Julian said icily. "All that matters is who survives."

Mikael rolled his head on his shoulders, and spoke with reserved patience. "Give me Andrea, and we'll call it even."

"She's a bit too busy reminiscing about the good old times, I'm afraid. I'm sure she'd send her love if she had a tongue and vocal chords to do so," Julian said with a slow, cruel smile. Jenny felt her blood run cold.

"I'd count my words if I were you," Mikael said, and pushed himself off the car.

Julian tensed, and stood unmoving when Mikael approached him with a predatory prowl.

"Now, now," Mikael scowled when Julian lifted his hand, pulsating with white hot light. "No need to get ugly just yet. Take a tip from your elders, kid, and keep to the game plan."

Mikael elegantly extended his own hand, his fingers gently coaxing. "If you want Jenny, you're going to have to fight for her."

Jenny was staring at his hand blindly. Fear held her locked in place.

"I don't need to fight for her," Julian said flatly. "She's my rightful claim."

"Oh? Funny, she didn't seem that impressed to be labelled your property," Mikael responded furtively.

"Jenny is _mine_."

That did it. To hell with the consequence. If Julian ripped her apart right then and there, he'd be doing her a favour. Jenny stepped forward, and slid a trembling hand into Mikael's outstretched one.

Mikael pulled her closer to him, and Jenny forced herself to look at Julian. He'd been caught off guard at her action, but now anger unfurled across his beautiful face and his eyes were dark when he met her gaze.

"Jenny," he said sharply; a command that tolerated no disobedience.

Jenny struggled to get her voice past the lump of terror swelling in her throat. "I _can't love_ you," she said shakily.


	3. Illusion

**~...~**

Julian looked back at her as if she'd just slapped him out of a dream.

It nearly tore her heart out. Jenny stared back at him, her fear and anger overcome with regret. She wanted nothing more than to take back what she'd just done; despite all the evil and hurtful things he'd inflicted on her, there was still a part of her that inexplicably loved him.

But the words couldn't be reeled back in, and she couldn't fix the effect they had. In those four little words she'd declared herself his enemy. She could do nothing but watch the truth sink in.

Julian seemed very vulnerable right then. He folded his arms across his chest and hung his head, staring down at his feet like a child that had taken a rough beating.

"All right then." His voice was at odds with his posture, though; cool, strong, and with a hint of anger. He heaved a sigh, and Jenny swallowed hard when he shuddered. There was violence in his eyes when he finally looked at her. "I warned you before, Jenny."

Jenny stared back at him, terrified.

"You didn't want to listen. Now I'll show you how dead serious I am."

Her mind grasped his meaning, and Jenny felt the strings holding her up snap. She opened her mouth, but she had no breath to speak.

"Next time we meet, make sure you've got an army behind you, kid," Mikael said in amusement, and Julian slowly backed into the shadows.

Jenny couldn't breathe until Mikael had buckled her into the passenger seat and slammed his own car door shut.

"He's going to kill my friends. He's going to kill my _family_," Jenny turned to him, gasping in fear. She was trembling uncontrollably, and helpless tears rolled down her cheeks. "And it's all your fault!"

"Humans," Mikael muttered with a snort, shaking his head as he brought the car back into motion.

"_I hate you_!" Jenny shrieked, fingers digging hard into the leather seat.

"Yeah, a lot of people do," Mikael said ruefully. "Don't blame me. _I_ didn't know about any deals you two had going."

"You're a bastard, you know that! A cold-hearted, blood-thirsty..."

"If it makes any difference, you did really well standing up to him like that. It takes courage to do something even when you're afraid," Mikael's quiet voice cut her off. He rolled down his window and leaned his elbow on it, steering with one hand as he looked over at her thoughtfully. "He won't hurt your family, Jenny. Do you trust me?"

Jenny grappled to remain in control of her breathing, and found his words had magically smoothed over most of her jitters. Something in his voice quietened the terror. "I don't know, should I?"

"Just until all this is over." Mikael nodded.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose distractedly, staring ahead, and then he did something that Jenny thought was a very un-devilish thing to do. He bit his nails.  
He did it carefully, teeth crushing down gingerly on the ends, a purely subconscious action. His eyes were dark in the shadows of the car, but she saw them widen slightly when he absent-mindedly looked at her and caught her staring. He dropped his hand, and did a good old fashioned cowboy spit out the window. He gave her another glance, shifted self consciously in his seat, and then flicked the radio on. A steady drum beat with heavy electric base thrummed into the car, accompanied by a demented voice screaming inaudible words.

"Good song," Mikael said awkwardly, and Jenny looked out the window.

It was bizarre that he acted almost human around her, seeing as Jenny had been given the impression that he was someone to be feared and loathed. Maybe it was because she reminded him of Andrea that he was so at ease with her. Thinking of Andrea brought Julian's threat to mind suddenly, and Jenny's stomach made a sickening spin. _I'm sure she'd send her love if she had a tongue and vocal chords to do so_.

She turned to Mikael to question whether Julian had been serious. He would know better than she did whether it was just banter. She stopped herself when she saw the deep frown wrinkling his forehead, his expression remote and troubled. It was the first time she'd seen him quiet and serious – it was obvious he was thinking about the same thing she was, and it was clear on his facial features what the answer to her question was. The visual of Julian cutting out Andrea's tongue was revolting, and added fuel to the cold fire that had shrunk when she'd been faced with him.

"He'll get what's coming to him," Jenny said.

"No," Mikael said, and added when Jenny looked at him, puzzled. "He'll get worse than that."

They pulled into a deserted parking lot, and Jenny climbed out to gaze up at the enormous old era building. Mikael brushed past h-er toward the arching doors haloed in shadow.

"A cathedral?" Jenny asked.

"Are you coming?" Mikael called over his shoulder, and Jenny followed.

It was eerie walking up the long aisle past the silent rows of seats. There was a restless silence that made her skin crawl.

"Are you allowed in here?" Jenny whispered when Mikael pushed open a door beside a statue of the Christ nailed to a cross.

"It's open to the public," Mikael replied, leading the way up a narrow spiralling staircase.

"No, I mean..." Jenny trailed off when he turned to give her a assessing look.

"I've got as much right to be here as the next hypocrite. I'm not going to be turned away just because I am what I am, if that's what you're implying."

"Sorry," Jenny said, embarrassed.

"It's the best view of town from the bell tower," Mikael added less defiantly.

He was right. She followed him carefully around the large still bell, and was rewarded with an ocean of fallen stars winking back up at her through the gauzy sheet of rain. Jenny sat down beside him, and picked up a slice of pizza when he edged the open box closer to her. They sat in companionable silence, gazing over the landscape spread out before them. Jenny never would have imagined she'd be sitting here, in this moment and in this place, with a complete stranger after she'd resolved to forever submit to Julian just that morning.

But Mikael didn't feel like a stranger at all, Jenny thought. It felt like she'd always known him. It didn't make him any less frightening or changed what he was, but there was something about him that settled her. She wasn't even scared right that moment, sitting near a five story drop.

More notably, the deep ache of loss attached to her heart was somehow easier to bear. She could see Tom's face now, as clear as an animated photograph imbedded in her mind. His devilish smile that lit up his warm hazel eyes, his rakish charm and good cheer, the sweet pang his mere presence evoked in her.  
If she listened really hard, she could almost hear his voice, _'I love you, Thorny'._

"Her house was a halfway point."

Jenny licked her lips and glanced at Mikael, puzzled. He was leaning back against one of the old dusty brown pillars, one knee bent and the other leg dangling over the edge of the belfry. His face was turned toward the view, and the pale moonlight illuminated his profile, dancing off marble smooth skin and outlining his hair with bright silver. He looked like a brooding and battered young prince - almost fairytale perfect.

"Anny's great-great grandfather built a house, on land where a lot of blood was shed. Areas like that call out to us. We use the negative remnants to manifest ourselves. It took him a few years to complete it, 'cause once the walls had been raised the energies were able to solidify and a lot of nasty accidents happened to his workers," Mikael continued, pronouncing 'accidents' with a peculiar tone in his voice. "Powell's have lived there ever since. I had my kin with me for a while, but when her great aunt decided to bless the house to protect them from us, the others left. I hung around because I liked to watch."

Mikael took a bite and swung his slice of pizza around. "Her grandmother was able to see me. Never talked to me, which is just as well. And then Andrea came along. The kid had the uncanny knack to sense my presence since she was in diapers. Followed me around all the time, offering me her toys. If it wasn't for the protection of blessings, I'd have ripped her apart. I didn't want to leave, so I had to indulge her. But when she got older, she got cheeky, and she challenged me."

"She challenged you? What?" Jenny asked, and straightened up. "Was she nuts?"

"Clearly," Mikael said indifferently. "She called me out. Provoked me with insults and threats. By that time she was so used to my presence that she was fearless."

"Wow," Jenny said softly. It was hard to get her mind around that. She'd been petrified beyond words when she'd been faced with the shadow people as a child. She couldn't imagine anyone purposely trying to make contact with them.

"I took her to the shadow world, and even then after everything I'd shown her..." Mikael dropped his head and smiled pensively. "Things didn't get exciting until Julian stumbled onto the halfway spot. Little bastard stole her away right under my nose, and he had good timing, too. Andrea was a real little vixen when puberty hit. Innocent, inexperienced, pure, confused, and with a temper to boot. Always wanted things her way, even when she didn't know what it was she wanted." Mikael peered at Jenny and pushed a hand through his hair. The silvery strands fell back in disarray, making him look dotingly dishevelled.

Jenny was about to take another bite of her pizza, but stopped to look at him desperately.

"You're not insinuating what I think you are, are you?" Jenny said.

"She thought she wanted him. Julian took advantage. How could he not, being what he is?"

"Ugh," Jenny gasped, throwing her food back in the box. "I just lost my appetite." Mikael laughed, and quietened down when Jenny glared at him. "It's not funny."

"Well..." Mikael smirked. "It _is_ ironic that he'd end up falling in love with her understudy a few years later."

"He wasn't in love with her?" Jenny said, wiping her damp hands on her legs, ignoring the faint tremor in her arms.

Mikael shook his head. "It was all lust. I didn't realize I loved her until I caught them getting up to no good. She admitted taking him on as a substitute because she was in love with me. I don't know who felt more insulted - him or me. Either way it didn't sit well with Julian."

Jenny let her breath out slowly. "Well. No. I can't imagine that it would."

"There was a big fight. Broken bones. Lots of screaming, and blood, too. Only because he asked for it," Mikael said. "He swore he'd make her regret ever meeting him. That's what he's doing now."

He leaned his head back against the pillar, a forlorn aura about him.

"How old are you?" Jenny asked, and pursed her lips when he finally looked at her.

"Too old," Mikael said wistfully.

"Julian said your appearance reflects your nature after a while. I've seen his elders, and they were..." Jenny paused, grimacing at the memory of raspy distorted voices and crocodile skin.

"Mmm. We're created in perfection, but it is the inevitable fate of all dark creatures," Mikael said.

"Are you... good?" Jenny asked, and ran a hand through her hair, flustered. "I mean... that sounds stupid but..."

"You want to know why I haven't ended up like the others," Mikael said helpfully and shrugged when Jenny nodded. "I'm no good, Jenny. I'm no good at all... but I'm smart. Why rush things when I have an eternity to do whatever I fancy? I live longer, and I look good doing it."

"But you can't be that horrible. There is some good in you," Jenny said.

"You're not an idealist, are you?" Mikael said. "There's no good in my kind. Don't be fooled to think otherwise. Every good deed has strings attached."

"But you can't be _evil_. If you were completely and hopelessly evil, you wouldn't have the ability to love, would you?" Jenny persisted.

Mikael studied her with gleaming eyes, and curled his fingers into his palm. He clenched his fist tight enough to make his knuckles turn white.

"Love is weakness," Mikael said grimly.

"_You're_ the one who convinced me to keep on fighting, for Tom..."

Mikael cut her off with an irritated grunt. "That's not what I meant. Love kills. Love can be used against you. Look me in the eye and tell me Julian hasn't used your feelings to gain his own benefit."

Jenny closed her mouth, and the words that had been cueing up retreated back down her throat.

"I'm not the first to fall in love with a mortal, and Julian isn't the last. It occurs more often than it should. Do you want to know why exactly I'm renowned throughout the Shadow World for loving Andrea?"

"Because you're impossible," Jenny said.

"Because I love to hate," Mikael said, and his eyes brimmed with ancient malice. "To hate feels divine. It gives you power. What does love do but expose your soul and strike you down?"

He opened his fist and little wisps of grey smoke curled off his palm. The tendrils plaited together, and spiralled into the air between them. "If life is sweet and pure and definite before love, but stained and shaken and broken by love, then what point does love really serve but to hurt and weaken?"

The smoke collected itself into a cloud and hovered above them before it slowly unfurled. It began to form a silhouette, filling out the details like an artist sketching with charcoal, until a hazy vision of a familiar persona stood before them.

Jenny stared up at Tom in tender astonishment. The smoke matted into skin and clothes, defining his features clearly. He moved and his eyes met hers. The greyness was slowly fading into colour, and when he came down on his haunches right in front of her, the irises of his eyes were becoming that warm familiar hazel flecked with green.

"_Tom,"_ Jenny whispered, coming forward on her knees to stare back at him.

A tender look crossed his face.  
Jenny tore her gaze from his to look at Mikael when he appeared around Tom. He slumped down beside her with eerie grace, and moodily stared back at Tom. He made a curt wave with his hand, and a shadow dislodged itself from the pillar where he'd been sitting moments before. It stepped closer to them, and the soft moonlight illuminated Andrea wearing a small smile. She settled down beside Tom, right in front of Mikael and Jenny, and crossed her legs beneath her. Jenny's eyes darted from one to the other in disoriented amazement. The greyness melted away, and they became solid.

"You're stronger without him," Mikael said. "He can't be used against you, and your love for him will never die. Andrea, on the other hand..." Mikael trailed off.

"_Mikael_," Andrea's voice was a sigh, barely audible over the downpour of rain.

"You're driven by your love for her," Jenny said.

"No. I'm driven by the thirst to kill. Hate gives power, I told you," Mikael said coldly. He extended his hand and Andrea did the same. Jenny watched Andrea's hand melt into smoky fumes around his.

"Are they really here?" Jenny asked, gazing at Tom again.

"It's all illusion," Mikael said timidly.

"But... how?" Jenny breathed. It was hard to realize the boy in front of her wasn't real, because he looked _very _real.

"Memories," Mikael said.

"_I love you, Thorny_," Tom said. It was his voice, there was no doubt in her mind that it was his voice, and Jenny caught her breath when he reached forward to caress her cheek. His touch was cool, and tender, and as soft as twilight, as soft as moth's wings, as soft as...

Jenny's heart froze when the fingers became long and slender, and the face in front of her shifted into Julian's. Mikael made a swift gesture with his hand, like he was swatting a fly away, and the visions of Andrea and Julian violently unravelled and blew into the rain.

"It's just mist and shadows, Jenny," Mikael chided gently.

"I know," Jenny said, hugging her knees to her chest. She stared out at the rain for another moment, and covered her face with her hands.

"You okay?" Mikael asked, nudging her arm lightly.

Jenny nodded, trying to battle down the heavy lump in her throat. She lost the fight, and a little sob preceded a wave of tears.  
Arms folded around her in a comforting embrace. The touch wasn't as soft and gentle as Julian's, or as familiar and safe as Tom's, but it was warm and soothing and it dried her tears faster than she'd have thought possible.

"Only the strongest will survive this war," Mikael said and Jenny pulled away from him, smoothing down her hair with a sniff. "Right now, that's you and me, Jenny."

"That's funny because I don't _feel_ very strong right now," Jenny said, her voice still thick with unshed tears.

Mikael's smile lit up his eyes, and he climbed to his feet. "Come on. I've got to show you something."


	4. Jump

**~...~**

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

Jenny wanted to scream when after two hours of non-stop driving and asking him the same question like an interrogator, Mikael kept to giving her the same curt reply. She was tired and uncomfortable, and conversation between them had dwindled into silence.  
Mikael eventually pulled over at a gas station to top up the fuel, and to bring an arm load of snacks and drinks from the little dairy back to the car. Jenny noticed he didn't pay for anything. She also noticed the somewhat dazed expression of the cashier staring after him.

"Do you ever do anything right?" Jenny asked when he got into the car.

Mikael gave her a naughty smile, eyes darting down her face. "Sure do. Want to see?"

Jenny closed her eyes tiredly. "You're really annoying."

"Only sometimes."

"Where are we going, Mikael?" Jenny said. She sounded very much like her mother right that moment; her voice had that edge to it that meant she was close to losing her temper. Thinking about her mother now made Jenny wince inside, and she opened her eyes to glare out her window when they drove off again.

"You'll see. It might be a little while before we get there still. Why don't you try catch some shut eye?" Mikael suggested.

Jenny snorted incredulously. "With _you_ in the car? Not a chance."

"Don't trust me then?" Mikael asked.

"Only as much as I need to."

"Go to sleep, Jenny."

Jenny let out a heavy sigh and shook her head at him. "I can't."

Mikael laughed quietly. "You can trust me."

"I don't think so."

"You can. You _have_ to."

"So far you haven't done anything to earn my trust, so why should I?" Jenny snapped groggily.

"Well, I'm going to prove you can trust me. That's where we're going."

Jenny finally looked at him, and blinked heavy eyelids. "What?"

"I don't have time to earn brownie points with you, Jenny. I have to _show_ you that you can trust me," Mikael said.

"How are you going to do that?" Jenny asked, frowning.

"You'll see."

"Argh!" Jenny groaned and bent forward to rummage through the bag at her feet.

She pulled out a soda, catching sight of the glowing digital numbers on the display mantle. 2:09. Jenny let out another sigh, and took a couple of swigs from her bottle before settling back. She'd thought that having to concentrate on holding her drink upright would be enough to keep her awake.

She didn't know she drifted off until Mikael woke her up. They were still driving, but the sky outside wasn't black anymore. The heavens were cloudy and opaque, and the street lights were still on.

"Wakey, wakey," Mikael said, glancing over at her and tapping her on the knee. "Good morning, sunshine."

Jenny blinked and glanced around the car in dazed fatigue. Her eyes felt swollen and heavy, and when she saw the time she knew why. 6:10 glared back at her.

"Just in time for dawn," Mikael said playfully. He was too cheerful, and there was a note of mischief in his voice that unsettled her.

Jenny spotted her drink placed in a cup holder, and reached for it. A tunnel came up ahead, and she frowned hard when they exited it on a winding road. Something rusty red and enormous jutted out beyond the trees along the road.

"Is that..." Jenny stopped, wondering if she was hallucinating.

"Golden Gate Bridge. Over eight thousand feet in length, ninety feet across, and a whole seven hundred and forty six feet high," Mikael said excitedly.

"Why are we in San Francisco?" Jenny asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes tiredly.

"Because the bridge is in San Francisco," Mikael said. "I thought you'd like to watch the sunrise from it."

Jenny ran her hands across her face tiredly. "Very funny. Are we almost there yet?"

Mikael laughed. "Are we going to start that now?"

Jenny didn't have the energy to get into another argument. The sleep she'd gotten wasn't nearly enough, but now that she was awake she couldn't just go back to it. Not while she was alone in the car with Mikael.

They drove onto the bridge. White fog hung low in the air, giving the world a cold, miserable face. Jenny frowned when nearly halfway across the bridge, Mikael threw the hazards on and pulled over. She opened her mouth to question him when Mikael turned to face her. His eyes silenced her, and his lips were set in grim determination. She licked her lips nervously when he got out and circled the car. She didn't budge when he opened her door.

"It's cold outside," Jenny said.

"Come on. We didn't drive all the way here for nothing."

"What are we doing here?" Jenny asked wearily, forcing her stiff and tired legs to get out.

Mikael slammed the door shut behind her, and ducked through the bars that separated the pedestrian walkway from the road. He waited patiently while Jenny did the same, and then they were facing each other. There were no other people on the bridge except for the occasional car that would speed past.

Mikael backed up against the rail, and glanced at the drop over his shoulder."C'me here."

Jenny inched forward cautiously, glancing around anxiously. "What are we _doing_ here?" Jenny asked again.

Her entire body went rigid when she reached his side and she caught a good view of just how high up they were. Her hands reflexively clung hard to the rail, and she forced herself to look away from it.

"I told you in the car, remember?" Mikael said. "The whole talk about you not trusting me... I know you were half asleep, but it didn't _all_ go right over your head, did it?"

Jenny stared at him in dismay. "No. I still don't see what trust has to do with us being on a bridge six hours away from where we originally were."

Mikael sighed, and pulled himself onto the rail. Jenny stepped back, terrified when he straightened up. His foot slipped, and Jenny nearly shrieked, but he caught himself quickly.

"Whoops. Didn't think it would be that slippery," Mikael said with a light-hearted chuckle.

"What are you doing?" Jenny asked. It was hard to breathe. She kept expecting him to fall off every second. "_Get down from there this instant!_"

Mikael slowly lifted his arms, and Jenny thought he was going to fall. She watched in shocked suspense when he stylishly lifted his right leg in a straight line, and did a sequence of smooth, insane fouettés. She couldn't understand how he managed to do it without spinning right off, but he did it with elegant expertise, and gave her a charming bow when he stopped.

"I'm going to prove you can trust me. I'm going to show you, so that no matter what happens from this point onward, no matter what is said, you can trust me unconditionally. When I tell you to do something, however scary or bizarre, you'll do it because you trust me. When I give you my word, you will trust that I will keep it..."

"Okay, _okay_, I trust you, just please get down from there!" Jenny cried. She was shaking, pacing in a small agitated circle and staring at him wildly.

"That's not what I'm going for," Mikael said, braced like a teacher with his work cut out for him.

"Please, I'll trust you, I promise. Please, just don't jump," Jenny pleaded in frantic alarm.

Mikael looked as though she'd just thrown a grenade at him. He shook his head with a scolding frown. "Tsk tsk, Jenny. Don't be silly, I'm not going to jump."

It took a moment for her to make sense of his words, and then relief flooded her. "Good. _Good_, now..."

"_You_ are," Mikael said, his face steady and his eyes blazing.

Jenny burst into sudden laughter. "You're crazy."

Mikael shrugged, accepting the insult with ease, his gaze unwavering. "If you don't trust me, I can't bring your friends back."

Jenny's laughter stopped short.

"If you don't trust me, I can't take you to your family," Mikael said. "If you don't trust me, I can't help you."

Jenny bit her lip hard. "You're blackmailing me, is that it?"

"I'm stating the facts," said Mikael. "You can perceive it however you want."

"I'm not jumping," Jenny shook her head, giving a small, slightly mad laugh.

Mikael pursed his lips, slowly pacing the rail with careful steps. His eyes didn't leave her face once. It was unnerving, and Jenny kept waiting for him to miss his step and fall.

"I'm not. You can't make me," Jenny said firmly.

"I won't force you into anything," Mikael said. "But if we don't do this, you'll never truly trust me. I might as well hand you over to Julian because if I don't have your trust, he's got the upper hand."

Jenny looked from Mikael to the rail, her mind whirling with terror and confusion. "Why this way?"Jenny asked uneasily.

"You're afraid of heights, that's why."

"How do you know?" Jenny asked.

"I read people. I saw your reaction on the belfry last night," Mikael said, and licked his lips impatiently. "Are you going to leave me standing here all day, or are you going to get a move on?"

Jenny stood uncertainly.

"It's now or never, Jenny. I'll give you a countdown of five seconds," Mikael snapped.

Jenny drew a deep, shaky breath and walked over to him slowly, her steps jerky. She tried to swallow when she reached him and looked down at the view, but her mouth was dry and her head felt heavy with pressure.

"What do I have to do again?" Jenny asked hesitantly.

"Give me your hand, I'll help you up," Mikael said, crouching easily and holding his hand toward her.

Jenny looked from his hand to his face, and felt sick with fear.

"How is making me jump off a bridge going to make me trust you?" Jenny asked breathlessly.

"I'll show you. Come."

Jenny turned around and carefully lifted herself onto the rail. She could barely lift her hand, and she was trembling when she slipped it into his.

"Here we go. Slowly now, keep your balance."

Jenny allowed him to help her straighten to her feet. When he made her turn around, she felt as stiff as cardboard. There was nothing but air in front of her and water far below her.

"Now. I need you to listen to me carefully, okay?" Mikael said gently.

"Okay," Jenny said, in a small shaky voice.

"Jump when I tell you to. Don't hesitate, don't question it, just do it, okay?"

"Okay."

Mikael was silent for a few minutes. Jenny couldn't tear her eyes away from the ocean below her. Her chest had constricted and she was struggling to draw air into her lungs. She waited, every inch of her skin crawling in anticipation.

"Are you afraid?" Mikael asked quietly.

"Yes," Jenny gasped.

"I won't let you get hurt, Jenny," Mikael said soothingly. "Now, what are you afraid of?"

"I don't like heights," Jenny forced the words out.

"That's not answering my question."

Jenny swallowed hard.

"Are you afraid of death?"

Jenny made a slight movement with her head. Yes.

"I won't kill you."

Jenny let out a trembling sob. "I want to get down."

"You think that if you jump, you're going to hit the ocean surface with enough force to kill you on impact," Mikael said, and Jenny nodded again. "Or, what could happen is that the fall won't kill you, just cripple your body. But then you'll be swept under by the currents, and you'll drown and die anyway," Mikael said.

Jenny looked at him wide eyed. Her vision seemed to shift out of focus and she couldn't concentrate on his features.

"If you jump, you won't get hurt, and you won't die," Mikael said, holding her gaze evenly. "Do you believe me?"

"I don't..." Jenny started tearfully.

"Ah-ah. Think carefully before you answer, Jenny."

"Why are you doing this?" Jenny sobbed.

"If Julian wins again, he's going to win for good. You'll be lucky if he lets you live, and if he_ does_ let you live, I can guarantee you'll be thinking back to this day and wishing you'd jumped when I told you to. No one can help you but me, Jenny," Mikael said angrily. "I need you to trust me with your life. Do you get it?"

Jenny stared at him for a long, tense moment. Then she nodded.

"Good. Now, are you afraid?"

Don't look down, don't look down...

"No," Jenny said quietly.

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes," Jenny said, looking ahead of her and then she pinched her eyes closed.

There was a pause. Then, softly, "Jump."

Jenny forced her legs to bundle together beneath her, and she jumped. She thought it would feel the same way it did when she'd tried to end it all while she was still trapped in the institute.

She thought wrong. It felt worse.

Her eyes snapped open. The air shrieked and roared in her ears, the wind beat ruthlessly against her body, and there was the sickening feeling of nothingness all around her. Her heart was in her head, and her stomach in her feet. It was the most horrible feeling in the world. The surface of the ocean was choppy, restless, and solid, coming closer too fast. She felt the ocean spray on her face.

There was no time to draw a breath of air and scream. It was a seven second fall. The thought that she was going to hit the water and die came a fraction of a second before the flash of brilliant white. It took her another second to realize that she was no longer falling, and that she was being held securely. Her legs buckled beneath her, and she leaned heavily into the arms.

"Sorry. I meant to grab you sooner, but like I said, my teleporting is a bit rusty," Mikael murmured against her hair. His hands were warm when he rubbed her arms, and a serene sort of strength spread through her.

Her body was chilled and trembling, though, and her legs were too weak to support her.

"Here," Mikael said, stepping away from her. He shrugged off his coat and draped it around her shoulders, enveloping her in immediate heat. "I think we're going to be just fine, Jenny."

**~...~**

**A/N: *looks around hopefully*... *puts on pleading puppy eyes*... good? Bad? My confidence is dying, does anyone like it this far? There will be much more Julian, I swear.  
**


	5. Abandon

_...I never kneel and I'll never rest..._

**~.....~**

Her hands came up between them, and her palms were chilly against his bare chest. She caught him off guard when she shoved him away. They stared at one another; Mikael indifferent, Jenny fuming.  
"Don't you _ever_ make me do something stupid like that _ever_ again." Jenny spat at him, her voice as shaky as her body. She whirled around, never more thankful to feel solid ground beneath her feet, and ducked through the bars to get to the car.

She slammed her door shut and glared at him through the window. Mikael was still standing where she'd left him – minus his coat – looking back at her steadily. His expression shifted into an emotion she couldn't quite distinguish when he lazily walked to the car, and when he got in he didn't look at her. He started the engine and sat for a moment, allowing the car to idle beneath them.

Jenny buckled herself in, stubbornly avoiding looking at him, too. Not because she was mad at him – her temper flared up and died as quickly as a candle in the wind; she had to look away to keep herself from staring at him. She wanted to give him back his coat to cover up, but she didn't dare come closer to him than she needed to.

Mikael let out a deep sigh and hung his head.  
He shifted the car into gear in a swift, violent move, and put his foot to the gas. Jenny clutched the seat tightly when he made an unexpected one-eighty degree turn before pulling off with a squeal of rubber. She sent him a quick, withering glare. Neither of them spoke again until they pulled into a packed parking lot outside of Disneyland Park.  
"Now what? You feel like some candy floss?" Jenny said.  
Mikael was opening his door, and paused to give her a dangerous look before he got out. He slammed the door shut. _Really_ slammed it – the car swayed with the impact.

Jenny didn't move until he stopped beside the entrance to the amusement park and turned to look at her expectantly. She expected them to be held up at the box where everyone else had to pay an admittance fee, but the girl behind the glass counter merely glanced at them and nodded curtly.  
"This way." Mikael said tersely, and Jenny tried to keep up with his brisk pace.

She was panting by the time she reached his side. He was leaning against a wooden column underneath a clock tower that could have passed as a Victorian era Big Ben. He was oblivious to the stares of people passing him by.  
"You can have your coat back." Jenny said, stopping in front of him.  
His eyes traced her form and finally fixed on her face. "Don't mind if I do."  
He slipped it off her shoulders and gave it a little tug. Jenny noticed he was careful not to actually touch her. He gave it a hard shake, slid his arms into the sleeves and shrugged it on smoothly.

"You should be safe. I'll come find you tonight, we'll have dinner." Mikael said, avoiding her gaze.  
"You're leaving me here?" Jenny asked, stumped.  
"Just for the day. I've got matters to tend to, and I can't have you tagging along." Mikael said and brushed past her.  
"No, wait, you can't leave me here." Jenny said. She'd grabbed his arm without thinking, but dropped it quickly when he froze to give her a peculiar look. "Julian will find me..."  
"He won't get hold of you if you stay with your family. I've got precautions for their safety in place, so as long as you stick with them and don't let yourself get trapped alone somewhere, he won't touch you." Mikael cut her off coldly. "I'll see you tonight."  
"My family?" Jenny repeated blankly.  
Mikael nodded past her, and she turned around in time to see her parents emerge from the ride behind her. Joey was tagging along with Zach, Uncle Bill was wolfing down an ice cream, and Jenny's father and Aunt Lilly were laughing. Jenny's mother's face lit up when she spotted her.  
"Jenny! Oh, dear one, there you are." Her mother gave her a little pat on the shoulder. "We've been looking all over for you."  
"What?" Jenny asked in confusion. She turned back, but Mikael was gone.  
"I was starting to get worried about you. First you don't answer your phone, and no one was home so I just left the free pass on the mantelpiece with a note. Joey won a free pass day for seven of his family members at Disneyworld, how lucky is he?" Her mother laughed lightly, and sobered a little. "I thought it might do you some good, to join us. After everything that's happened this week...well, I just didn't think it would be wise for you to be alone, and it might do you good to spend some family time with us."

"Right." Jenny shook her head, and frowned when a familiar face strolled out from the ride behind her family. The warm brown eyes met hers for a brief moment, and from the pale, set look on Ronnie's face, Jenny knew it wasn't just coincidence that he was there.  
"If it was a mistake, I could take you home..."  
"No, no. It's fine, really, mom. Thanks." Jenny said, shaking her head again.

She couldn't quite get into it the way she used to, though. The rides didn't excite her, and the sweet cotton candy kind of feeling she'd always associated with amusement parks evaded her all day. It was hard to tell which people were just tourists and locals out to have fun, and which people were put in place to keep an eye on her and her family.

When Zach pulled her to the side late noon to question her about Julian's whereabouts, the only answers Jenny could give were 'I don't know'. Dusk was settling and her family were making plans to go sit down for supper somewhere.  
"I'm waiting for a friend." Jenny had said when her father asked if she had a preference for sit-in or take-away. "I've got supper sorted for myself, thanks."  
"Oh, but why don't you invite your friend to join us, then?" Her mother said.  
"He... it's hard to explain, he's very..." Jenny trailed off, unable to find a suitable excuse. "It's just better if he doesn't."  
She excused herself to slip into the ladies bathroom, and Jenny fixed her hair listlessly. It was so hard not to tell her parents what was going on. But she knew it would be as effective as when she'd tried to tell them about the paper house. They'd have her locked behind mental bars before she'd be able to bat an eyelash.

Urg. Society. Jenny stopped her fussing and splashed her face with cool water. She wanted to go home and crawl into her bed and sleep all of this away. If she could just pretend none of this was really happening, if she could just forget for just a little while...  
Jenny straightened up with a sigh, and felt her heart ram to a halt when a hand clasped over her mouth.  
"It's Lover's Moon tonight." Julian murmured against her ear.


	6. Back for the claim

_...you can tear the heart from my chest..._

**~.....~**

"I've been waiting for you to break away all day, you know." Julian continued quietly. His breath was warm and light against her skin, and Jenny could see him in her peripheral vision.  
She didn't scream or struggle against him. She wasn't even afraid that he'd caught her, not right away at least. Her mystified mind was trying to herd together all her disordered senses to make logic of what was going on.

There was something terribly wrong. Jenny couldn't pinpoint what it was straight away, because her mind refused to face it. His hand was cool and soft against her lips, his voice insidious in her ear, and then she realized what was wrong with the picture. She was staring back at her reflection, forest green eyes wide and vaguely dazed – and she was alone. In the mirror, at least.

Julian's reflection was absent. It was a shocking realization, and it was the only thing that gave Jenny the strength in that brief moment of madness to wrench herself away from him.  
"You've been following me?" Jenny gasped, relieved to be free of his touch.  
"I'm always watching you, Jenny. You knew I was here." Julian said, closing the distance between them. "That's why you separated from the others."  
"No I didn't." Jenny said, and cringed when his arms embraced her and his face lowered to hers.  
"Admit it. You wanted me to come for you." Julian said. His lips brushed against hers, gently coaxing.  
Jenny flinched away and gave him the most sceptical look she could manage.

"Why would I want you to come for me? When did I _ever_ want you to come for me?" Jenny said brusquely. "All you've ever done is to make me miserable, and you've hurt the people I love. You've destroyed my life, why in the heaven's blue skies would I _want_ to be with you?"  
Julian dropped his arms to his sides and gave her a sidelong glance, blue eyes unusually piercing and bright as he studied her.  
"You can't possibly believe that I will just go with you willingly." Jenny spat indignantly.  
"You have no choice." Julian replied.  
"You're an obsessed lunatic, and I don't like you." Jenny said, and swallowed down the flood of anger that threatened to spill from her lips. Her voice carried across the deep loathing she felt.

Julian smiled – a slow, scary and sadistic smile. "I see Mikael's influence rubbed off on you." The smile snapped off, and Julian added gravely, "I've told you before, Jenny. It doesn't matter what you think you feel for me. You're mine now, you belong on my side."  
Jenny did the only thing her mind could conjure up. She ran.

She must have caught Julian off guard because he didn't set after her until she'd flung herself through the door. Jenny dodged a group of children and accidentally knocked a corndog from another kids' hand as she ran past. Her family was settled around a booth in one of the restaurants, Jenny could see them through the brightly lit window. She opened her mouth to call out to them – and tripped.

She hit the pavement hard, scraping her knees and arms in the fall. There were startled looks from passersby, and then helping hands were hauling her to her feet.  
"Are you okay?" A slender, tall girl with bouncing blonde curls and a very pale complexion was dusting off Jenny's arms. She looked and sounded as shaken as Jenny felt.  
"You're not supposed to be alone, how did you slip past us?" The person who had pulled Jenny to her feet was petite, around Summer's size, and probably one of the most beautiful girls Jenny had ever laid eyes on.

Her dark hair was cropped short, her expression stunned, and her eyes as blue and indescribable as Julian's.  
"That looks sore. Come with me, I've got a first aid kit in my car." A third girl spoke up. She was eye level with Jenny, with shaggy blonde hair and warm brown eyes, and looked slightly flustered.

Jenny was ushered from the amusement park, despite her feeble protests.  
"I need to get to my family."  
"No, you need to come with us."  
"You don't understand..."  
"Just shut up and tell what you we do to...uh..." The first girl trailed off, face flushing. "I got that wrong, didn't I?"  
"What Shelly means is just do what we tell you, and everything will be fine." The girl with the shaggy hair said with a roll of her eyes and a patient sigh.  
"No, you don't understand," Jenny said, panicky when they stepped into the quiet parking lot. There were too many shadows, and her struggle against the three girls renewed with dread. "You don't understand! He's _here_..."

"_You_ don't understand." The girl with the dark hair chided impatiently. "We've got our orders, and we will follow them through. Whether it makes you happy or not."  
"Amy, you didn't have to put it like that." Shelly said sharply.  
"Kim, just get the kit." Amy barked, and the girl with the shaggy blonde hair shot toward a car. "Did he hurt you at all? What did he say to you?" She asked, turning to Jenny. Her eyes darted past Jenny, and a grimness spread over her face.

"Let her go." Julian's voice cut through the cords that were keeping Jenny in control.  
"Stay away from me!" Jenny cried out.  
"Okay, okay. Let's just keep calm here." Shelly said, pulling Jenny toward the car.  
"Sorry, can't do that." Amy said coldly to Julian, shielding Jenny every step of the way.  
"Here." Kim pushed Jenny into the passenger seat, and dabbed at the grazes on her elbows with something cold and wet.  
Jenny flinched, and stared wide eyed as Julian closed in on them.  
"Let me go... let me go, I have to get away..." Jenny said, but Kim's grip was surprisingly hard.  
"He won't touch you, don't worry." Kim said, and sent a cunning look at Julian when he leaned against the doorframe next to Jenny.

She waited for him to grab her, but he just watched her quietly. Jenny glanced from one face to the other in bewilderment.  
"Get out of the car." Julian finally said when Kim finished tending to Jenny's bruises.  
"You don't have to do anything he says, Jenny." Shelly said from the backseat.  
"Get out. _Now,_ Jenny." Julian's voice turned to something ugly.  
That's when she realized he couldn't get her in the car. She didn't know how or why, but it was the only thing that made sense of why he hadn't just taken her already.

"If you don't want me to kill Andrea, you'll come with me right now." Julian said, and Jenny felt the secure triumph fold up inside of her.  
"You wouldn't." Jenny said. "I would never forgive you for it."  
"I don't care." Julian said and frowned hard at her.  
"You're bluffing." Jenny said, but she was losing her confidence.  
Julian arched his eyebrows at her, his gaze ominous and dark. "Anny, why don't you tell her how serious I am?"

Jenny jerked upright when a figure moved, and Andrea appeared right behind Julian.  
"Anny..." Jenny said.  
"_Don't_, Jenny. Don't get out. He can't get past the wards, just _stay in the car_." Andrea cried out.  
Julian turned to glare at her, and Andrea staggered a step away from him in response.  
"Andrea, are you okay?" Jenny asked. She was conflicted between relief to see Anny still alive, and terror to see her right there in front of them.

"No, I'm _not_ okay." Andrea almost sobbed. "Just don't let him get you, too."  
"Get out of the car." Julian said impatiently, straightening up and looking back at Jenny. "Or I'll set her on fire. You know I'm serious, Jenny. Don't make me kill all your friends now."  
"Don't listen to him." Andrea shouted. "It doesn't matter what he does to me, you hear me?"  
"Where's Michael, and Audrey?" Jenny asked, trying to think past the sudden buzz of adrenaline smashing in her head.  
"They're alive. They're still alive." Andrea said, and let out a shaky sob. Something about the way she said that made Jenny think that it wasn't such a great thing that her friends were still breathing.

"Right now, or I'll do it." Julian had run out of patience.  
There was that fuzzy white light over his hands again. Jenny stared at him for a second, and turned to send a frightened look at Andrea. Even as she watched, Julian made an abrupt, swift movement with his hand, and Andrea burst into flames.  
"No... no, stop it!" Jenny tried to scream. But her voice was too weak and it came out a wheezy whisper.  
The flames burned a fierce blue, exactly the colour of Julian's eyes. Andrea fell to her knees, shaking her arms feebly.  
"Get out, and I will." Julian said.  
"Jenny, don't..." Andrea screamed, but Jenny had already set her foot out the door.  
"Mikael is going to kill you," Amy snapped, but none of them lifted a finger to pull Jenny back.

Julian seized Jenny in a close, steely embrace. The second he touched her, Andrea disappeared into thin air.  
"I'll trade you." Jenny said, struggling to pull away from him. "If you let Anny and the others go, I'll come with you willingly."  
"How about I kill your friends and just take you instead?" Julian said edgily.  
"What?" Jenny gasped.  
"Let's face it. Every trade you and I have tried to negotiate in the past has been shrouded in deceit. I bump my head only so many times against the same wall, Jenny. A trade is out of the question."Julian said.  
"That's what I said." Mikael piped up, and they turned to see him leaning against a car with fury in his eyes. "He plays you like the fiddle, Jenny. You ought to know better by now."  
Jenny managed to take a step away from Julian, but he didn't let go of her wrist.  
"Jenny belongs with me." Julian ground out through his teeth, posture rigid in angry anticipation.  
"Playtime is over, kid. Let's do business." Mikael said, and straightened to his full length.


	7. Boil and bubble, blood and banter

_...I'll make you see what I do best..._

**~.....~**

Something very, very eerie happened.  
Gravity got eliminated. Every lose pebble, and every scrap of paper began to drift off the ground. The hundred or so cars parked around them began to lift into the air like some insane magic trick. Even the car behind them, still hosting its three now shrieking occupants, was floating into the air.

A strange thrum had started in the earth itself and was vibrating through Jenny's bones.  
"You really want to do this?" Julian said. "Here? Now? Because I am more than willing, Mikael."  
Mikael was looking around as though he was taking a stroll through an art museum. Awe mixed with curiosity and something very oddly like appreciation in his gaze – which was crazy given the circumstance.

"You got some spunk in you, kid." Mikael said admittedly and turned icy eyes on them. "But this is child's play compared to what I can do."  
"It's foolish to challenge me. Especially because of your...limitations." Julian said with a nasty smile.  
"A small price to pay for an eternity in paradise." Mikael made a fluid gesture around them.  
"An eternity that's about to be cut short." Julian said.  
Mikael walked up to them with a predatory poise that had Jenny's muscles tensed. His eyes were a very light opal, an almost metallic colour, when he stopped right in front of them.  
"Coward." Mikael bit the word off.  
Julian bristled.  
The thrum beneath Jenny turned into something frighteningly like an earthquake.

"Strike me down here, now, and you'll have no victory. I am unarmed. I hold no threat to you here. I am forbidden to defend myself."  
"Suits me fine." Julian said.  
"Taking the easy way out then."  
"Who doesn't?" Julian said with a smirk. "You'd have done the same thing."  
"No." Mikael said, and his sneer matched Julian's in coldness. "I fight fair."  
Julian gave a curt, icy chuckle.  
"Yes. I'm familiar with your perception on fairness." Mikael cut him off with a disdainful wave and took a step back.

A hollow, tinny, echoing sound like drums filled the air. Jenny tried to pinpoint its location, but it was coming from everywhere.  
"Huh. Look at that. The sky is falling." Mikael said with a slightly manic laugh.  
Jenny tilted her head back and was met with a sky filled with what looked like the northern lights. Like diesel in the sun. Black, dancing with unimaginable colours. It was the most beautiful and most frightening sight she'd ever seen.

"You can do better than that, kid." Mikael taunted.  
Jenny flinched when Julian's hold on her wrist tightened, and he pulled her against his chest. She thought he was using her as a shield, and she stared at Mikael pleadingly. Don't kill me, _please_ don't kill me...  
"Come on. You couldn't have forgotten the tricks of the trade I integrated into you since the early days." Mikael said.  
A car soared through the air like some invisible hand had thrown it, and Mikael ducked out of the way smoothly. Julian was whispering something in an archaic language, his breath brushing over Jenny's hair.

"That's it?" Mikael asked and folded his arms across his chest. "Well that's... disappointing. I thought you'd be capable of more than throwing a car at me. And there I was under the impression that I was training you to join my elite."  
Julian's voice picked up strength, and the air around them dropped several degrees. Jenny shivered.  
The tips of her fingertips shrivelled up from the cold, and her lungs began to rebel against the frigid air she was trying to draw into them. It was freezing, and it felt like she was suffocating...  
Her mind flashed back to complete darkness, cold water and imminent death. She was back in the cave, and about to drown. Just as she thought it, Julian's arms circled around her waist and warmth spread through her at his touch.

"Little cheat." Mikael said. He didn't look happy.  
There was a deep angry frown on his face, and he leaned closer, cocking his head to the side as if listening. His eyes widened in amazement and he straightened up with a snort.  
"Summoning reapers? Too afraid to finish me off yourself, boy?"  
Julian fell silent. There was a long, dragging moment where Mikael just stared over the top of Jenny's head at Julian.

"You're the slyest trickster out there. I can't be sure to kill you right, but reapers do death really well. Regardless of what you are. Or who you are." Julian said.  
"Ohhh, so you've got logic. Good thinking." Mikael nodded, and his eyes flashed in amusement. "You can't get rid of me. See, the problem with parasites are that they have ways of coming back. When you least expect it. In ways you'd never imagine."

"Really." Julian said.  
"Really." Mikael echoed.  
"Fire - burn." Julian said.  
Jenny cringed back against him when Mikael staggered away as though he'd been punched in the gut.  
"Ow...ow, damn it, you little bastard... oowwww..." Mikael screamed in the most terrifyingly demented voice. Jenny watched him claw at his skin as if he was trying to rip it off with his bare fingers. It was awful to watch, because although he was in obvious pain, his screams were somehow mocking. In between his howling, there were short bursts of frenzied laughter.

"Melt." Julian said.  
The flesh began to blister and turned angry red, and then it was rolling off his arms in gory streaks that made Jenny want to gag. The mocking tone ceased when Mikael dropped onto the ground and writhed in genuine agony.  
Jenny had no voice, but her heart was screaming for mercy.

She wrenched herself from Julian's grasp and stared at him in sheer terror. "Stop it. Stop doing that!"  
Jenny rushed to Mikael's side and dropped hard onto her knees. She couldn't touch him anywhere because his skin was peeling off as easily as tomato skin soaked in boiled water.  
"I don't know what to do. I don't know how to help you!" Jenny said and sobbed hard.

Julian crouched down beside her, eyelids drooping in sadistic glee while Mikael weakly rolled on the ground in distress.  
"Boil." Julian said.  
Mikael's screams picked up a new note and he thrashed about wildly. Blood splattered black across the ground. Jenny gave Julian one firm, angry shove before covering her ears with her hands. Julian fell back on his rump, caught off guard, and stared at her in dismay.  
"Make it stop!" Jenny shouted at him.  
"He asked for it."  
"_Make it stop!_"  
"Okay. Whatever you want, Jenny." Julian said, and the screaming stopped.


	8. Death of a devil

_...I'll succeed as you breathe your very last breath..._

**~.....~**

Julian straightened to his feet with wicked satisfaction drawn across his features. He landed a hard kick in Mikael's side and chortled with obvious delight.  
"So this is what the great Mikael has become." Julian said, circling him with a ravenous sneer.  
Mikael rolled over onto his stomach with a painful groan.  
"A devil with no power. Bound by rules from an Entity that loathes our kind as much as we loath Them. Pathetic."  
"Screw you." Mikael choked.

"Do something." Jenny whispered urgently, and Mikael lifted his head to look at her. "You do have power. Show him."  
"What a joke." Julian said. His foot came down and smashed into the side of Mikael's head.  
Mikael dropped his face into the ground and lay still for a moment, before his limbs began to move in excruciating sluggishness. He was trying to crawl away.  
"Where do you think you're going?" Julian said playfully.  
He came down on his haunches directly in Mikael's path. A very clear 'pop' resounded through the charged air, and Mikael stopped moving.  
"You don't know... who... you're dealing with." Mikael mumbled.  
"There is just no end to your cockiness, is there?" Julian chided, and another 'pop' snapped through the air. This time Mikael let out a scream.

"Don't do this. Please, Julian..." Jenny sobbed and crawled on the ground beside Mikael. She didn't bother to wipe the hot tears streaming down her cheeks anymore. "Mikael, don't let him do this."  
"I'll come for you." Mikael whispered in a strained voice. "Jenny...tell Anny..."  
Julian's malevolent laughter drowned out his words. "Shame on you, you lowly bastard. How dare you try give her any hope? You know, I'm going to kill Andrea in the slowest, most painful way imaginable. Pity you'll be dead in a few minutes. I wanted you to watch."  
"Mikael, do _something_," Jenny pleaded.  
"I can't." Mikael breathed hard and tensed. "It hurts too much."

Julian wrung his hands together and paused to stare at them. "Not much of a devil."  
Mikael let out a weak laugh.  
Jenny tried to scramble away when Julian reached for her, but his reflexes were snake-like and he hauled her to her feet quickly.  
"Kill him."  
Something that resembled a column of ash descended from the sky. A low, buzzing noise started up, and Mikael tried to crawl faster. The column separated into three. The next moment, Mikael was flung onto his back like a ragdoll.  
"Ow, fuckit..." Mikael groaned out.  
The first cloud of ash raked across him, and when it pulled away from his screaming form, he didn't resemble anything human. The Invisible Man, Jenny thought in pure horror. He was a piece of meat made up of sinewy muscle and bleeding tissue.

The second cloud of ash attacked. Mikael's screams came to a dead stop. When the particles lifted off, the flesh was nearly gone from his bones. She could see his intestines, purple and red and black things. She could see his heart through the gaps between his ribcage – it was still beating.  
And the _smell_. Jenny staggered away when the last cloud of ash enveloped what was left of his body, and she bent down and gagged.

She struggled when Julian seized hold of her.  
"You won't win this war. I won't let you." Jenny spat at him.  
"Careful, Jenny. I'm not in the mood for your games tonight." Julian said.  
Jenny pulled free of him and turned to run, when the sight left on the ground made her blood freeze. A skeleton lay where Mikael had been only a moment before. All flesh was cut clean off – the bones were a deep golden ivory, smooth, polished. Mikael was dead. Really, truly dead.  
Jenny was doomed.

~...........~

_**A/N: As I said, just for you Raven ;)  
Don't feel too sorry for him, btw. He's seen way worse than this, ha ha ha **__****__** evil laugh :)  
Reviews *pulls out begging hat* reeeevieeeewwwwssss...**_


	9. Illusion masked reality

_...now I know how the angel fell..._

**~.....~**

Begging for mercy didn't resurface in Jenny's mind after that. Her struggles ceased when Julian opened a vortex with a mere twirl of his fingers. He held his hand to her expectantly.  
Run. Chase. Prey. Hunter.  
Pine green eyes locked with drowning blue.  
The lamb and the lion.  
_Stop running._

Her mind was clear, and her perception snapped in a new direction.  
Jenny put her hand in his, and held on tight. There was a glimmer of curiosity in his gaze, and the corner of his lip twitched up into a quietly triumphant smile that melted her heart. He thought he'd won. Maybe in a way he did, Jenny decided.

They stepped through the vortex hand in hand. It was the strangest and weirdly the most pleasant sensation Jenny ever experienced. Like being dunked into a black pool of polystyrene balls – air turned solid. She could physically feel the swirling blackness around her, but it was so light that her nerves couldn't register actually feeling it at all. Very, very weird – and cool.

I'm in shock, Jenny thought, but she knew that wasn't really it. Her mindset had altered. Mind over matter. That's what it all boiled down to, didn't it? The power of thought. Emotions could give strength, but she knew what Mikael had meant when he claimed it was weakness. Julian had played on her emotions to get her out of the car, didn't he? Which meant, in this case, in these peculiar circumstances, that Mikael had known what he was talking about. She should have listened to him. She never should have slipped away from her family... no time for regrets now.

Tears were no use. Pleading was futile. Dwelling on her past mistakes was going to get her nowhere unless she learnt from them. There was no time for peace, or remorse, or inner reflection. This was war.

How am I going to tell Anny? Jenny wondered. What am I going to say? She'll blame me, of course, because this is all my fault to start with.  
Then again, maybe Jenny didn't have to say anything. That was Julian's trademark move, wasn't it – to withhold information. If it worked for him, it could work for her.

"You're very quiet." Julian cut through her reverie.  
Jenny snapped back to the present and looked at her surroundings for the first time. It looked like the land before time – a barren desert with red sand dunes rising far into the distance, and deep black craters in the earth itself spouting steam and ash. The sky itself seemed to be set on fire – not with orange flames but blue like gas flames, the same burning blue reflected in Julian's eyes when she finally looked at him.

"Can I see my friends?" Jenny asked.  
"In time. I need to see if you're going to be on good behaviour or not."  
"Okay." Jenny said.  
"Well." Julian said after a pause. "That's a start."  
"What?"  
"For once you didn't contest me. I was waiting for you to go off on me again."  
"What's the point?" Jenny mumbled.

Julian's hand shifted in hers, and she looked at him in surprise when he lifted her hand to his lips. His eyes were radiating. Jenny's heart thrummed in response to that look. It was so easy...so easy to just love him. If she hadn't known what he really was... if it hadn't been for everything he'd put her through... if it hadn't been for Tom, Jenny would have loved him unconditionally, selflessly, endlessly.

"It seems you've seen reason," Julian said and lowered her hand gently. "But I'm not going to go easy on you. You've betrayed this foolish heart one time too many."  
_Foolish heart._ That was the weak link in this whole affair – thinking with our hearts instead of our heads, Jenny mused. It was funny how straightforward and simple things appeared once you got your mind around that.

Jenny slid her free hand up his arm and draped her arm around his neck, pulling his mouth down onto hers. It was a kiss tainted with sweet insecurity – she could feel his lips tremble against hers. Julian broke the kiss off and gazed down at her with dark eyes. He stroked a strand of golden hair from her forehead, and his fingertips caressed her cheek.

His heart was racing as fast as hers in wild, exhilarated pleasure. She could see it in his eyes, hear it in the slight change of his breathing, and feel it in her own chest.  
He might not go easy on her, and she might have to endure hell for a while. But really, Jenny knew deep down that she had this in the bag.  
"Then I will spend the rest of my life earning your trust." Jenny said breathlessly.

"A very enticing proposition." Julian said softly, and narrowed his gaze at her. "I'll believe it when I see it."  
Jenny shrugged sheepishly, lightly dragging her fingers down his shoulders and across his chest. His heart was a drumbeat against her fingertips. Jenny smiled. She'd been so wrapped up in the static his touch evoked in her, she'd never really paid attention to his reaction to her. Her touch was as effective as his, at any rate.

"Where are we?" Jenny asked.  
"My world." Julian said, and stepped away from her. "You'll like it here."  
Jenny glanced around sceptically. "I don't know. It's not that spectacular."  
"I'll show you." Julian said with a velvety laugh.  
He led her right up to one of the craters. It was nothing but a black pit, and Jenny was rigid, waiting for it to blow something up at her from its depths. She stepped aside when Julian lowered himself into it and disappeared. Then his hands protruded from the inky blackness, pale and slender and strong. Reaching for her.

Jenny glanced around uncertainly, and carefully sat down on the edge of the pit. She slid her hands into his, and scooted off the earth. She expected to fall into complete darkness, but what awaited her was mind blowing.

It wasn't that deep, and it wasn't a pit – it was a tunnel. Once Julian settled her safely onto her feet, Jenny noticed that it wasn't solid black around her. The walls were alive with colour – bold, bright, soft, pastel, metallic – a mix of brittle colours that glowed and shifted in unimaginable beauty. Jenny lost her breath. She stepped deeper into the tunnel, staring in total awe.

"It's beautiful." Jenny whispered, and turned to look at him.  
Julian looked surprisingly broody for someone who was about to bring their trophy home.  
"What's wrong?"  
"I made it for you a long time ago." Julian said.  
"I love it." Jenny said.  
Julian paced the uneven floor to join her side. He took her hand softly, and studied it for a moment, drawing little circles in her palm with his thumb. It was a very sensual feeling that lifted her heart.  
"I love you." Julian said it so simply, with so much tender conviction that it squeezed the breath from her lungs, and it took Jenny a moment to regain control of her body.  
"And I love you."

~........~

_**This scene was taken straight out of my original. With the characters and circumstances twisted to fit, obviously. Like it much? Yes, I'm pitching my book, I want to get published gosh darn it! B'sides, it's not like my originals mind that much. Galen is a sweetie pie, he likes to share :)**_


	10. Welcome to my world

_...I know the tale and I know it too well..._

**~.....~**

The tunnel increased in height and width as they ventured deeper, the outcrops evened out and the ground became as smooth as red marble. Jenny was fighting very hard to keep her heart in check.  
It was one thing to have total control over her thoughts. It was a different story altogether trying to convince the rest of her body to cooperate.

The fact that Julian seemed incapable of not touching some part of her didn't help the matter much. He would touch his fingers lightly to her spine to steer her ahead; take her hand and almost subconsciously lift it to his lips to leave a trail of twilight kisses up her arm. It was still difficult to think at all when she was faced with his surreal beauty, but Jenny gradually concluded that he acted on instinct. He wasn't purposely trying to woe her, or frighten her with the intensity of his gaze. He did it because he couldn't help himself. Hadn't he told her that before, long ago? He'd been kissing her, and his voice came back to her on memory. _I can't help it, I can't help it._ Impersonating Zach... was it then?

Jenny stopped trying to remember, when once again, he lifted her hand to his lips.  
His sensual lips that could slump into a supple smile, lips that could cause sheer chaos inside of her with just a graze of its beauty; lips that were the softest rose, an inviting colour that deceived the passion and warmth they contained. Jenny didn't realize she was staring until Julian paused, and flaming blue eyes met hers. And those lips curled into a smile that would have the devil himself dazzled. "I can't help it." He said sheepishly to her stare.

Jenny cleared her throat and looked away when he lowered her hand. Ahead the tunnel ended on a slightly elevated plateau, and opened up to the impossible. They were underground, she was quite sure about that because the tunnel had been gradually descending lower and lower. So seeing a landscape of vast green meadows, mauve and navy mountain ranges on the horizon, and clear sunny blue skies stretching far into the heavens was beyond disorientating.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"  
Jenny tore her gaze from the breathtaking scenery before her to look at him. Julian seemed as enraptured by it as she did. By any means, he wasn't staring at her anymore.  
"Come. I want to introduce you to some of my friends." Julian said, his hold on her hand becoming firm.

Jenny's heart started a very unpleasant beat as she followed him across the grass. It was a beautiful place. But it was too green. Too perfect. The air she drew into her lungs was almost too fresh. The lovely warmth from an invisible sun was almost too nice on her skin. Everything felt too real. Her senses were too alert. She was on a high of some sort. She'd never felt so alive before, and it was terrifying.

"What friends?" Jenny asked worriedly.  
"You'll see." Julian answered over his shoulder.  
"I thought everyone was mad because... well, I don't know. Because Mikael seemed to think everyone hates you." Jenny said.  
Julian halted in his tracks suddenly and Jenny crashed into him. He turned and steadied her.  
"Don't say his name again. Ever." Julian said icily.  
"Okay." Jenny said weakly.

Julian looked at her for another drawn out moment. It was intimidating having him look at her like that.  
"I won't. I promise." Jenny said quietly.  
"Good." Julian said, satisfied, and tugged her along with him.

A collection of what looked like ridiculously ordinary ranch-style houses came into view when they stepped through a rocky pass between two tall mountains. Jenny tried to memorize their tracks. In the event that she would be presented with the chance to find a way out of here, she wanted to have a fair idea of exactly where to start looking for an escape.

When they finally reached the small town, it felt like they'd walked right into one of those golden western movies. Saddled stallions and mares in deep silvery greys and rich chestnut shades were tied to wooden posts outside pubs and saloons, grazing their nozzles deep into feeding bins and water buckets.

Well, an old western with a modern twist. The roads weren't dusty gravel but smooth black tar, and loud music droned out from one of the pubs – it sounded like new-age dark metal, Jenny couldn't be sure. Her heart was fluttering like a panicked bird when she realized Julian was steering her straight toward it. She purposely dragged her feet, causing Julian to slow down. She didn't want to go in there. She had a really bad feeling about this place.

Then they were climbing the steps up to the porch, the wood creaking ominously beneath her feet. Julian stopped to shrug off his grey duster jacket and offered it to Jenny.  
"So you don't get cold." Julian said encouragingly.  
"What about you?" Jenny asked, eyeing his black vest and bare, muscular arms.  
"I'm used to it."  
Jenny took the jacket nervously and pulled it on. The sleeves were too long and her hands disappeared in the folds. She zipped it up all the way to her chin, and smoothed her hair down anxiously.  
"I'm not sure I want to go in there." Jenny said.  
"Well then let's go in and _make_ sure, shall we?" Julian said.

He didn't give her any time to protest or back away. He got hold of her arm, and pulled her through the swinging doors behind him. It was just like stepping into one of those museum bars that had been left untouched by time and preserved in its original state back home – a true cowboy hangout. Less the cowboys.

There was a spicy, intoxicating stench in the air – not quite acidic and sharp like alcohol, but it came very close. The stools around the polished wooden bar were occupied, with more keen customers crowding around it, waving to catch the bartender's attention. Two pool tables with velvet red tops were surrounded by laughing young people, and another crowd was playing darts on a large dartboard in glittering shades of red and black. There were tables and chairs cluttering the rest of the space, all of them overflowing with people.

What made Jenny go very still were the people swamping the place. Gorgeous girls, breathtaking boys, and beautiful ones that Jenny couldn't distinguish as male or female - each and everyone as stunning and shockingly perfect in their own right.

Julian had turned around when she froze in her tracks, and now was wearing a reassuring grin, his eyes coaxing gently. "Don't be afraid. I'm right here with you."

Jenny forced herself to move. One foot in front of the other. Julian held her arm with both his hands, holding her as close as he could while still leaving space for her to walk easily.  
She was afraid of touching the people around her but as it turned out, it was something she didn't need to worry about. They were clearing a path for her and Julian. She didn't like the way they were looking at her. Their eyes were so cold and hollow, it was frightening.

"Usual?" the bartender glided over to them. It was a beautiful girl that surprisingly looked familiar. Jenny stared hard at her, trying to place the face to a name, or figure, or anything to make sense of the crazy déjà-vu assaulting her.  
"Yes." Julian said.  
"Special for the girl?" Her eyes flitted to Jenny and focussed back on Julian.  
Julian nodded, and as the girl turned to fix their drinks, Jenny recalled a name. Amy – the girl who had tried to protect her from Julian earlier. But it wasn't exactly her. Maybe her sister?  
Did shadow people have brothers and sisters? Jenny vaguely remembered Mikael calling Julian 'brother'. She looked up at him uneasily.

"Welcome to the shadow world." A guy next to her caught her attention. He flashed a smile that nearly knocked her senses out of order, his odd grey-green eyes sparking at her like glowing coals.  
"Finally we get to see what all the fuss is about," another girl with long, shimmering blue-black hair leaned past Julian to study Jenny with curious mauve eyes. "Glad to see we weren't prepared to die for an Average. But then," the girl gave a cat-like smirk and seductively walked two fingers up Julian's chest, "you never were one for the mediocre."  
"Heard you got a tour of the shadow park," the guy next to Jenny said. "What did you think?"

Jenny stared at him.  
"What's the matter? Cat caught your tongue, little girl?"  
"Could we have a taste of her?" Jenny's round eyes swivelled to fix on the girl, who was by now almost draping herself all over Julian. The awkward thing was that Julian didn't seem to mind her intimate proximity.  
"I don't like to share." Julian said in amusement. "You know that."  
"Oh, come now. Just a teeny weeny little bite," the girl brought her face to closer to his, and snapped her teeth together flirtatiously. "I'll make it worth your while."  
"Really? How?" Julian said curiously, and Jenny's blood turned to ice at his words.

"Let me, and I will show you."  
"How about you just show me?"  
The girl clearly didn't like his response. Her brow furrowed unhappily and a pout turned her features into a face that would drive any sculptor crazy with lust. "How did you get her? I thought the Mix was holding her hostage?"  
Julian let out an irritated breath. "Mikael is dead."

All conversation ran dead and every pair of eyes heaved on them.  
"Dead?" the girl repeated the word precariously.  
Julian responded with a look of dismay. "That's what I said."  
"But... how?" She asked, stumped, and then other voices followed.  
"Where?"  
"When?"  
"I don't believe it."  
"Who done it?"  
"What a load of crap."  
"You got any proof?"

"Poor, poor Mix." The girl shook her head, and broke out in a wide smile. "I, for one, always believed you would be the one to put an end to that miserable old fart. Good riddance."  
There were shouts of agreement, cheers filled the air, and then everyone was drinking in merry celebration. Clearly, announcing Mikael's death had just crowned Julian king.

Time seemed to drag endlessly. Jenny wanted nothing more to get out of there. It didn't matter that the people around her were overly nice and friendly to her, and it didn't matter that their contagious, beautiful laughter brought forth her own. It didn't matter that none of them touched her, because she was afraid they might at any moment morph into demonic creatures and sink their teeth into her arm or neck. Jenny wanted to go home.

There was no sign of hope that she would get any of her wishes fulfilled any time soon. Julian was enjoying their company far too much, and Jenny's voice was choked up with fear. She couldn't tell him she wanted to leave, even if he asked her. She found slight solace in the fact that Julian didn't let go of her arm, not even once.

It was amid that inebriated laughter and merry chants of victory that the doors to the bar flew open, and a small figure streaked across the room toward them like a golden butterfly on steroids. Everyone was caught off guard by the unexpected appearance. Before anyone could do so much as bat an eyelash, the chair ripped out from underneath Julian.

He landed hard on the floor with a painful 'oomph' and swore in some archaic language when the chair crashed down onto his back and neck. He rose to his feet and wrenched the chair away, furiously throwing it aside with a clatter. The music clicked off. Silence roared.  
Everyone stared at the furious assailant.

Piercing green eyes glared back at Julian.  
Julian's tension dwindled slowly, and his face was a mask of surprise and fury. "How the hell did you get lose, Andrea?"


	11. For Almaria

_...I'll make you wish you had a soul to sell..._

**~....~**

Andrea didn't respond. She stood as solid as a rock, glaring back at him menacingly. People were crowding closer, waiting for an invitation to step forth and intervene.

"You've got a lot of nerve." Julian said frostily.

Andrea lifted her hand jerkily, and slowly traced a shape in the air. Jenny squinted at her finger, and went cold with fear when she recognized it. Kenaz – the torch.  
She'd lost her mind, Jenny decided. When fire – red and very real flames that scorched Jenny's skin with its heat – reared up all around them, Jenny knew she was right. Andrea went berserk, drawing more runes with a mad glint in her dazed eyes.

Thick black smoke bellowed around them. Chaos ensued. People were running over one another to find their way out. Jenny herself choked on the suffocating air, and stumbled away.  
She knocked into the bar, and when she turned around she could barely make out Julian and Andrea in between the roaring flames. Like a classic old fashioned show down.

Andrea even had her hands hanging close to her thighs, fingers twitching as if ready to draw non-existent pistols.  
"You've got to ask yourself one question – 'do I feel lucky'?" Andrea said, but the voice permeating from her lips wasn't hers. It was male and familiar. Like a clip taken straight out of _Dirty Harry_, Jenny thought wildly, when Andrea continued with narrowed eyes. "Well, do ya punk?"

That's when hands wrenched Jenny over the counter of the bar and physically propelled her through the door behind it. With a last glimpse over her shoulder, Jenny saw Julian extend his arm and make a sharp motion with his hand. Andrea's head spun around like the possessed girl in the Exorcist and her body dropped to the floor. Then Jenny was practically being dragged through a smoky storage room, through another door into a non-descript back hallway, and forced to her knees beside a square gap in the wall. She was stuffed into the ventilation tunnel, driven by firm and rough hands from behind.

The smoke was everywhere, it blinded her and choked in her throat. She wanted to stop and burst into tears, but the person behind her persevered. Jenny could do nothing but obey the harsh shoves and prods. The vent opened up to a large oval drop, and Jenny was pushed into it. She landed hard and clumsily on metal floor, twisting her ankle and knocking her jaw into the ground. Pain blazed through her head for a moment before someone else landed beside her almost just as clumsily.

"Damn it." Andrea gasped, scrambling to her feet and hauling Jenny up. "Come on!"  
"What...who was that back there? Was that you?" Jenny cried out. She didn't need any prompting to keep up. They ducked through another tunnel, and then they were faced with a straight chimney-like shaft that led up to a little square of white light. Andrea rushed Jenny to go first.

The metal bars were cold when Jenny took hold of them, and she started to climb as fast as her fear would allow.  
"It was a decoy." Andrea rasped back. "I couldn't impersonate Eastwood like that even if I tried. Hurry!"  
"I'm going as fast as I can." Jenny almost sobbed when she reached the top. "It's nailed shut." She said, trying to push the iron gate away. She could see the clear blue sky above her, and tried to breathe in the fresh air.

"Go left, go _left_." Andrea nearly shouted.  
Jenny struggled to climb into the tunnel that veered off to her left. She'd crawled past a third bend when a sight met her eyes that made her break into tears.  
Audrey and Michael were sitting huddled in the tunnel, right beside another little irongate to the outside world. They weren't physically hurt as far as she could tell, but they wore a battered aura that was nearly just as terrible.

"Jenny!" Audrey hiccupped when she spotted her, and then Jenny had awkwardly flung her arms around her friends in the confined space. She cried in a torrent of release, and they cried with her. Even Michael, unashamed and evidently just as relieved to see her alive as she was to see them.  
"What are you doing here? Did he win?" Audrey asked over Michael's whimpering when she could finally speak through her tears.  
"No, he didn't." Jenny said firmly, wiping her own tears away. "I'm not going to let him win. I'm going to beat him. _We_ are going to beat him, and get out of here together."  
"That's the girl I know," Michael said with a shaky smile, giving Jenny a fond pat on the shoulder.  
"Well, we're not going to win by just sitting here, are we?" Audrey sniffed. "We need a plan."  
"I've got an idea how we can get back home." Jenny said, the trembling inside of her fading into cool resolve. "If we can just get out of this town without anyone seeing us, I can get us to the tunnel. If we can find our way out of the tunnel and we find the desert, we can find the doorway back home. He opened a portal there. We should be able to open one, too. We know the runes, we can do it."

"What do we do if we do make it back home? He'll come after us." Michael said.  
"We'll worry about that when we get to that bridge." Jenny said and looked at the square beside her. "Can we go out this way?"  
"Yeah." Audrey said.  
"I'll go first," Michael said, and pulled the iron away.  
They watched him poke his head through the hole. A minute later he retreated. "It's clear. Let's go."

They squeezed through the hole one by one, and hid behind a rusty humbug without wheels or windows. There was still chaos out on the street.  
"This way," Andrea said quietly.  
They followed a side path that ran right around the town. There were a few close-calls when they had to stop and hide behind trees or buildings before they could continue on, but they got out of the vicinity of town ridiculously easy.

Jenny led the way through the rocky pass and they broke out in a run to cross the meadows. Jenny felt victory thrum through her veins when she located the tunnel, and they hurried through the winding passage until, finally, miraculously, they reached the exit. Michael got out first, and pulled each girl from the hole carefully.

"Now which way?" Audrey asked, smoothing back her messy auburn hair and turning expectant dark eyes on Jenny.  
"That way, I think." Jenny pointed to her right. "I'll try find the exact spot, but keep an eye out for it. Maybe we'll be lucky and the portal will still be open."  
They walked carefully, steering clear of the ominous dark holes and sulphuric puffs of steam.  
"It was around here somewhere." Jenny said when they finally stopped. They surveyed their surrounding, but there was no portal in sight.  
"Something is wrong." Andrea said, and her quiet voice ironically sounded very loud.  
"What do you mean?" Michael asked.

Jenny turned to see Andrea half turned to stare over her shoulder in the direction they'd come. Her demeanour was sheer tension.  
"What is it?" Audrey asked frantically. "Are they following us? Do you see something?"  
Andrea blinked, and gave Audrey a startled frown. "Not they. _Him_. He's following us. Of course he would. He doesn't want us to leave."  
"Where should we hide?" Michael asked in sudden full-fledged panic.  
"Where _can_ we run? It's open desert." Audrey said and almost sobbed.  
"Should we try hide in one of the other holes?" Jenny said, glancing around worriedly.

"Not a good idea." Michael shook his head vigorously. "We don't know what the hell is down there."  
"Anny. Anny, what's wrong?" Jenny asked at the calmly confused look on Andrea's face. Everyone was on the verge of freaking out, except for her. Maybe she knew something they didn't.

"He's coming." Andrea said, and turned to scowl at Jenny in frustration. "What the hell is going on? Why is he taking his sweet damn time chasing after us?"  
"Wh...I..." Jenny shook her head and stumbled when Andrea advanced a sudden angry step toward her.  
"Why is he so damn confident that we wouldn't have found a way home already?" Andrea snapped.  
"I don't know, but we need to get out of here before he catches us." Jenny shot back.  
Andrea's scowl melted away, and her jaw clenched. "No."  
"What?" Jenny breathed.  
"Knowing Julian, we wouldn't still be here making chit chat. He would have had us locked down in some or the other nightmare all of ten minutes ago already. But we're not caught, and we're still standing here breathing, and he's not in any rush to apprehend us. _Why, _Jenny?"

"Who cares? The longer he takes, the better chance we have to get away. Now let's move!" Michael said.  
Andrea glanced from one face to the other, and finally met Jenny's gaze evenly. "He's not scared. Why is Julian not shitting himself? Why is he not inflicting a pit of horrors on us? We're at war, aren't we?"  
"Oh...Andrea..." Jenny said when reality snapped the missing puzzle into place. "I... we are war but..."  
"There he is!" Audrey shrieked, and bolted. Michael followed very close on her heels. They didn't stop until they were several yards away, and realized that neither Jenny or Andrea were going to follow them.

Jenny turned to see Julian prancing across the red soil with a predatory swiftness. He didn't seem rushed at all. He didn't even look angry.  
"Jenny. What happened?" Andrea asked in a strained voice.  
She forced herself to look at the other girl. Her resolve broke, and Jenny fought back tears. "Anny, I'm so sorry..."

"So typical that you would come strutting in at the last minute to spoil the fun." Julian interrupted when he reached them. His gaze flicked from Jenny to Andrea, and a cruel smile unrolled across his lips. "The others are beyond furious by the intrusion. I hate to be you right now, Anny."  
There was a long, drawn out silence as they locked eyes.  
"Where's Mikael?" Andrea asked softly.  
"Who knows?" Julian said, raising his eyebrows dismissively. "What happens to a thing that has no soul when it dies?"

Andrea's face shattered and she broke into tears. Jenny wrapped her arms around her to offer comfort. "I'm sorry, Anny, I'm sorry..." Jenny said, feeling tears stream over her own cheeks.  
"Oh. Get over it." Julian said with malicious scorn. "I told you I'll make you regret ever choosing him over me."  
"I loved him, you bastard!" Andrea ripped out of Jenny's arms and advanced on Julian with trembling steps. She was waving her fingers in the air, sketching runes, and Julian was backing away quickly. Little sharp pops went off with every step.  
"I hate you. _I hate you_!" Andrea shouted.  
"Don't try this jazz with me, Anny. I'll beat you." Julian said warningly, still retreating.

"You're a sour loser!" Andrea stopped in her tracks, shoulders heaving. "A childish, no good, retarded loser."  
"Yeah well this loser turned your little prince into a pile of bone like this," Julian said, snapping his fingers, and his tone softened when Andrea sank to the ground and cried into her hands. "It's ugly, and it's not nice. But I did warn you."

Julian glanced at Audrey and Michael in the distance, and turned to Jenny. "You might want to bring your friends back with you. They're going to get themselves killed out there."  
Jenny waved them over. She didn't want to leave Andrea's side. She didn't trust the look on Julian's face.  
"Anny, listen to me. It's going to be okay. We'll make it okay." Jenny said gently.

"I wanted you to be there to see it. There was so much pain. So much blood." Julian said, crouching down beside Jenny and watching Andrea with malevolent glee. "Jenny here tried to cheer him on with pom-poms, but he was an old devil. His demise was overdue."  
"Shut up!" Jenny snapped, glaring back at him and hugging Andrea tightly. "Don't listen to him, Anny."  
"What? I'm not exaggerating, you know I'm not, Jenny. He was just too weak to fight me off. You know why he didn't fight back?" Julian said and chuckled. "He said, and I quote, 'it hurts too much'."

Jenny could almost feel the heartache in Andrea. "Julian, _stop_."  
"Want to know what his last words were?" Julian said.  
Jenny swung her arm to hit him, but Julian caught her hand, and continued, unflustered. "'Fuckit'. Not a very classy choice of words to spend his last breath on. But that was Mikael. _That's_ what you chose."

"Enough. I don't care about your twisted plot for revenge because your ego got dented." Jenny exploded, pulling Andrea to her feet and glaring down at Julian with every nerve in her body set on fire. "Rubbing it in is uncalled for. I will not stand for it. Enough is enough, Julian!"  
And Julian, surprisingly, fell silent.  
"Anny, calm down. Please, come on, take it easy." Jenny said gently. "Look... it might not make any difference, and I don't know if it will make everything worse or not, but Mikael asked me to give you a message from him before he died."

This had Andrea sober down. She was still trembling, tears were still running down her face, but the sobs had fallen silent and she looked back at Jenny with wide eyes.  
Julian straightened up, and sighed. "Jenny, don't be mean."  
Jenny hesitated at Julian's sincere tone of voice. "He said he'll come for you." Jenny finally forced the words out.  
"Now. That's uncalled for." Julian said accusingly when Andrea broke down in a fresh wave of tears.

"You'll have her drown us all at this rate. Calm her down, Jenny, before I do something to shut her up. And come home with me. Now."  
"Okay." Jenny hissed back, hugging Andrea tighter. "Come on, Anny. I'm here for you. Just ignore Julian."  
It was a tense task to herd her friends together and keep them moving at a pace that didn't annoy Julian. Andrea's sobs subsided eventually, to Jenny's great relief. Her heart bled for her friend, and for the life that had been lost. Jenny didn't quite understand Mikael – she'd never really got the chance to try to, but his intentions had been good. That was all that mattered, and that is what she mourned over.

_**~.....~**_

_**Hiccup: Ooooh, so sad, so serious. I was wondering how I was going to add a lighter tone to this chapter. All credit to Almaria, of course – I live to serve :) Hope I didn't disappoint!**_


	12. So Jaded

_...when I strike you down and send you straight to hell..._

**~....~**

"Will you show me how you did that back there?" Jenny whispered.  
They'd reached town and were following Julian at a little distance. Audrey was trying to keep Michael's hysterical little giggles in check behind them. People were looking out windows and coming out onto their porches to watch them pass by, as if they were a parade of some sort. There were nasty smirks on some of their faces, but for the most part the people appeared indifferent.

"I can't." Andrea whispered back, her voice thick and hoarse. Her gaze darted up once, and then refocused on the ground in front of her. Jenny glanced up too, and caught Julian watching them from up ahead.  
"Are you okay?" Jenny asked tentatively.  
Andrea shrugged rigidly. Jenny left her side when Audrey and Michael joined them, and hastened her pace until she was in stride with Julian.

"Are you mad at me?" Julian asked.  
Jenny looked at him in momentary surprise, and then with a frown she said, "Yes, I am."  
"I'll make it up to you."  
Jenny allowed him to pull her closer to him while they walked, but her tone was harsh. "You're not going to take my friends away from me."  
"Now, I told you..."  
"Yes, and now I am telling you." Jenny stopped to glare up at him. "If you want my cooperation and good behaviour, then you won't let my friends out of my sight. I can make things very hard for you. If you think I've been difficult before, think again."

A streak of anger washed across his face. "Careful, Jenny. You're in no position..."  
"To make demands? Oh, yes I am." Jenny said coldly.  
His anger gave way to amusement. "Fine. But Andrea gets locked down. I don't trust her."  
"Why? Because she's the only one who can do something to make you back off?"  
"No. She doesn't have enough power to inflict any actual injuries," Julian laughed. "She's bad influence. She just tried to abduct you – I don't want her pumping your head full of gibberish. We worked hard to get to where we are now, Jenny. I don't want anything, or anyone, to mess this up."

"You're a brute." Jenny said helplessly.  
"Nothing new there." Julian said, and led her past a white picket fence and up a stony footpath to a quaint little house.  
It felt strangely like coming home when they stepped through the front door. Everything had a sense of familiarity to it. Jenny thought she even recognized some of the decorations on the walls. He had to have taken some of it from her dreams, Jenny decided. When they walked into the family room, she knew she was right. The gloriously lush furniture was arranged in a specific way – it looked like her grandfather's lounge when she'd been a kid.

"Welcome home." Julian smiled.  
He led her toward a simple wooden staircase but paused on the bottom step. He turned around with a grunt of annoyance. By the look on his face, Jenny knew he was going to launch another verbal attack on Andrea again.  
She stepped away from him when he opened his mouth, and glanced around pointedly.  
"Well, it would be home, but there's something missing. I don't know..." Jenny said, rubbing her arms and dramatically gesturing around. "Something... like... Tom."

Julian shut his mouth and narrowed his gaze at her. Jenny returned the look evenly. It was a silent battle of wills that dragged for one merciless long moment before Julian wrenched his gaze from hers. He glared at Andrea with a loathing that made Jenny want to burst into terrified tears.  
"She can stay. But if I catch her trying to get you involved in another escape plan, or if she does anything that I feel is a threat to us, she's _gone_."  
Jenny didn't like the way he said the last. It was clear he didn't mean it in a light tone.

"Fine. Anny won't do anything." Jenny said, tugging his sleeve to get him away from her friends. "Don't get yourself so worked up over nothing. Now, come with me."  
"Come where?" Julian asked, taken aback.  
"We need to work on our trust issue, don't we?" Jenny said. She felt like her entire body was flushing in embarrassment - it wasn't in her nature to be so forthcoming or obviously seductive. The only thing that made it better was the fact that her friends had no clue what she was talking about, and Julian looked all too pleased and eager to obey.  
A wolfish smile raked across his lips."Yeah, so we do."

**~...........~**

**Hiccup: I'm sorry about the delay and sporadic updates. I'm distracted by my other projects, but I really am trying to make this fic good. Julian will be a little more... well, _Julian_, in following chapters :)**


	13. In memory

_...my army comes from deep within..._

**~.......~**

Jenny woke up with a sudden jolt, in a bed she didn't recognize. She clutched a fistful of the black velvety bedding, completely disoriented. Pine green eyes flicked from one corner of the room to the other, taking in the golden wood panelled walls and midnight blue marble floor. She cautiously climbed off the bed and inched her way toward the window to peek outside.

A lone horse dragging a cart was trotting by in the street below. Everything else was silence. Jenny pursed her lips and ventured out the room, and stuck in her tracks outside the door. She didn't recall the halls looking like this. Wider with black carpets, and decorative Victorian-style white panelled walls, trimmed with gleaming gold. Jenny stared up and down the hallway, and felt déjà-vu tackle her confused mind. Was she back in the paper house? Oh no...

She whirled right and bolted down the endless hallway. There were differences, though. No candles mounted on the walls, and mahogany door upon mahogany door lined down all the way to the end of the corridor like soldiers on attention. There were several enormous staircases that led down to a pit of ominous shadows. Jenny leaned over the railing nervously, and glimpsed downward. She threw herself back, sucking in a breath. How could she be this high up? It felt like she was in a tower in some Victorian goth slash modern palace, and there was nothing but unnerving silence around her.

"Audrey?" Jenny made herself call out. She forced herself to take the stairs down. Down, and down, and down... "Guys? Anyone?"  
"Good morning, sleeping beauty."

Jenny jumped and turned to stare wide eyed at Julian. Where did he _come_ from? Her mind didn't have much breath to ponder about it when her eyes swept over his physique. Leather vest – no shirt – bandana tied around his neck; dark Levi's starting almost too low beneath his navel, forcing her imagination and body to pump into an embarrassing direction; light boots with spurs. Jenny ordered her legs to move, and she took a step away from him. The look was completed by a traditional hat, and a long white leather whip he was threading with slow, seductive motions in his hands. A cowboy vision in black and white. Her heart made an unpleasant throb, and Jenny struggled to suppress the tsunami of passionate desire his appearance evoked in her. It was nearly impossible to do, because every part of her body was drawn to him and her self-control was deterred by it.

Julian cocked his head to the side, blue eyes glittering back at her with a wolfish countenance. A soft smile tipped the corner of his mouth up, and Jenny thought she was going to do something really stupid then...

_Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom_, she thought feverishly. _Come on, Jenny, get a grip._  
But it was so hard to recall Tom when she was faced with something as breathlessly intoxicating as Julian. Looking back at him now made her forget everything and everyone; it made her want to shrug it off and forget about what's happened, and just move on, just yield to him, it's not like she hadn't tried to fight him off...  
_Trying didn't save Tom, now did it?_ A mocking, taunting voice resounded from the depths of her memories, and chased away the cloud of dizzy desire overpowering her. Her mind cleared, and her conviction fell in place with a near audible _doef_. The frustrated fury and blazing loathing the words brought with them turned her core to steel. She'd made a vow that Julian would pay. She'd be damned if she didn't carry it through. And suddenly, it wasn't that hard to resist the beautiful apparition in front of her.

Something flashed through Julian's eyes, as though he'd picked up on the abrupt change of vibes from her. He extended a hand to her elegantly. "Breakfast?"  
Jenny slipped her hand into his, and observed their surroundings when they descended the rest of the staircase. "Where are the others?"  
"Don't know, don't care."  
"Julian." Jenny sent him a sharp glance.  
"Fine, you want to know where you can find them?" Julian's voice took on an edge of impatience.

"Julian..."  
"It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt..." Jenny stared at him in bewilderment and opened her mouth, but Julian rambled on. "It lies behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after..."

"Shut up." Jenny spat and slapped him on the shoulder.  
Julian narrowed his gaze at her dangerously. "You wanted to know..."  
"I didn't ask for a stupid riddle! Why can't you just give me a straight out answer, damn it." Jenny huffed back at him. "And very original, Julian. I know where that's from."  
"So? I didn't feel like making one up myself." Julian said heatedly. "I don't care where exactly your friends are. You can go look for them if you like, just don't ask me to join you."  
"Like I would." Jenny glared at him and started forward.  
"No, no." Julian tugged her back by the arm, and chuckled indignantly. "I meant _after_ breakfast. It's you and me time now. I had to wait a while for you to wake up."

Jenny allowed him to lead her toward a large arching door. She was fuming on the inside. She didn't like it much that he was making demands on her. Him and her time? They'd been inseparable since stepping into the house, what the heck was he going on about? Besides, he had no right. Now, if Tom were here...

She couldn't let herself stop thinking about him. She couldn't, because she was afraid if the memory of his hazel eyes dwindled from her mind one more time, she would never be able to recall him again.  
It was because of Tom's devilish smile that Jenny was able to resist Julian at breakfast in front of his friends that morning. It was because of faint memories of Tom's cheerful charm that she ended up wrapping a sulking Julian around her finger afterward, with the promise that she'd make it up to him.

It was because of Tom's battered, tired face after the trials Julian had put him through, being etched into her mind's eye, that she was able to play Julian without a hint of fear.

**~....~**

**Hiccup (oh gosh, I hate putting these notes in)  
I know it's very short, but the next chapter will have more action and dialogue. This one was more of a... reflective one, about where exactly Jenny gets her strength to play this game from. YARGH! Deadlines, I made it! I know I told you guys I'll be updating before the weekend, so I did (my word is gold, ah-huh ah-huh) The riddle is copyright of Tolkien (taken from The Hobbit, I think) Julian was too lazy to come up with his own, and I suck at riddles :p  
Reviews are appreciated :) Will update as soon as I get my '**_**Julian fangirl'**_** cap back on.**


	14. Warming up

_...beneath my soul – beneath my skin..._

**~....~**

Time held no more solidity to her. Jenny could never tell what time of day or night it was. Sometimes she didn't know the difference between the two as Julian would keep her trapped in his embrace, away from her friends, invisible to the realm outside the window. What felt like hours could have been days for all she knew. She never complained, or questioned it – the more time she spent with Julian, the faster she would reap her revenge.

The act of making love had become nothing but a physical deed of lust, and a means to release the pent up aggression writhing inside of Jenny. She never thought it would be possible to hate – truly, deeply, purely hate – the shadow man cradling her against him that moment. Their sweat drenched bodies clung together, heady breaths caressing one another's burning skin, and Jenny thought she'd never felt so inwardly cold before. Her blood was like sharp, icy streams circulating through her core. When she gazed up into the beautiful heavy lidded eyes, dark with insufferable passion, she somehow expected him to see right through her.

He didn't. Julian's lips were soft and warm, leaving a trail of shivery sparks over her lips and along her jaw line. Completely caught in the moment – blind to any ill intentions Jenny might have. He _had_ to know she didn't mean it when she reciprocated his devotion to her, though; he had to know that she was thinking of all the horrible things he'd done to her while she was smiling up into his eyes. He had to, but Jenny knew he didn't pay it any heed. An involuntary quiver of pleasure washed over her when his lips nuzzled in the crook of her neck, and Jenny's arms tightened around him.

She closed her eyes, and pretended with all her strength that it was Tom she was holding onto. It was Tom who was kissing her so tenderly; it was Tom caressing her with a touch so cool and soft that it left her trembling and weak. She didn't quite succeed – she pictured Tom's raking charm in her mind, and her pleasure drew up short when she saw the stormy look upon his handsome face. This was wrong. She shouldn't be doing this. _That's_ what his expression said.

Jenny pushed Julian's hands away from her and opened her eyes, avoiding looking at him altogether. She propped herself up on the bed, and scanned the elegant room in silky rich colours for her clothes.

"What's the matter?" Julian asked.  
Jenny nearly succumbed to his captivating gaze and his wolfish smile. His entire persona emanated an unbendable trust in her. She knew she had him where she needed him – entirely enthralled with her, putty in her hands. He was vulnerable, blind, and stupid. She didn't have to prolong the warm up anymore, she was ready to face him in battle, and she knew she would come out triumphant. But then, Jenny had her doubts. Was her delay of the inevitable war due to fear of failure? Or was it that she'd played her role at sabotaging Julian's defences so well that she believed she was in a comfortable and safe place? He would never know better, and no one else would have to get hurt.

_What is it...what...what..._  
Jenny frowned hard when Julian's fingertips danced down her back. She stiffened, and swatted his hand away.  
"I'm tired." Jenny said curtly. Her eyes found her clothes draped over a tall Victorian chair, and she made no show of getting dressed.  
"Jenny," Julian sighed her name. It still held that ability to turn her stomach into a mass of fluttering pixies, but Jenny didn't turn toward him. It wasn't real. None of it was.

The feelings he evoked in her were purely hormonal; her body responding to his, his words digging into the holes in her defences and weakening her even more. She knew this, because she was playing him the same way. There was no love in it though, not from her. Julian might be able to turn her mind to mush with a bat of an eyelash, but he couldn't move her heart the same way Tom did. There, Tom had no rival. He had her core in his grasp, and he'd taken it with him when Julian killed him – but instead of having a void inside of her because of his demise, Tom's absence had unleashed a white-hot fire that Jenny never knew she had.

It was the fire that drove her to play this dangerous game; the memory of what had been taken away from her that spurred her on to seek justice.  
Oh, Julian was going to pay.

Jenny turned back to flash him her most seductive smile. Or rather, what she hoped was seductive – she'd never actually had practice at flirting with guys. She never had to, because Tom had been her everything, and he'd been enough.  
"Julian," She sighed his name back, and nonchalantly strolled to the door. "I'm going out. Where are my friends?"  
"Downstairs," Julian grumbled, dropping back on the bed and glaring up at the ceiling.  
Jenny skipped down the stairs – and there were a lot of stairs – until she finally reached the ground floor. Sunlight poured through the windows and warmed the neutral coloured carpet beneath her feet. She poked her head into every room, and frowned in dismay when she found no one.

Her eye caught on the door that led down to the basement, and she stared at it for a moment.  
"There's a game of dungeons and dragons under way outside," Julian's voice made her whip around sharply. He was standing on the bottom step behind her, flanked in a suit of glossy white-gold armour. She could see her startled reflection off his chest, and gathered her composure.

He was a white knight – and a breathtaking one at that. Jenny still couldn't get her head around how he managed to look more eccentric, more beautiful, every time she saw him. Maybe her memory of his appearance faded as soon as she looked away from him, because of course, there were no words to describe just _how_ beautiful he was, no memory sharp enough to retain the vivid details of his dazzling exterior. That had to be why he was a shock to her senses every single time, Jenny mused.

"A knight? I would have expected you to go for the role of a villain, like one of the dragons." Jenny said, blinking away the immediate dazedness his presence caused in her.  
Julian shrugged and leaned against the banister, luminous blue eyes darting from Jenny to the basement door in front of her, and back. "I wanted to play the hero and save my damsel in distress."  
"So?" She responded to his expectant glance.  
"You don't feel like playing." Julian stated unhappily.  
"No."  
Julian blinked. "I could always force you."  
"You could try." Jenny said and tried to swallow the lump of fear in the throat inconspicuously.  
Julian stared at her for another moment with piercing gaze, his shoulders stiff with tension. Then, very slowly, the strain melted away and a disturbing little smile curled across his lips. "Fine. Next time, you will join me."

His tension seemed to have rolled off him and onto her. Jenny rigidly watched him stroll to the front door. He turned back as he closed the door, and sent her a disconcerting wink before disappearing from her sight.

"Temperamental, no-good, arrogant little wraith..." Jenny muttered under her breath, twisting the basement doorknob and wrenching the door open. "Audrey! Michael, are you guys down there?"  
"Jenny?"  
"Jenny, help!"  
The feeble cries mangled with unmistakable, breathless terror had a magnetic pull because Jenny found her body acting on instinct. She nearly flew down the stairs into the basement. Her heart was suddenly pounding in her head, and she found a scream of horror storming inside her chest. What did he do-?

The scream ripped free from her chest and filled the room when she saw the closet door bulging – like the one at the haunted mansion in Disneyland, like the one back in the paper house. The only difference was that something was coming _through_ the cracks around the door. Something as black as coals and with what looked like enormous bloody perforations in the slimy skin. A giant squid, Jenny thought, or an octopus. Those were tentacles.

What caused her to freak out was the sight of one of those colossal tentacles wrapped around Audrey. Michael was standing just out of their reach, swatting at the monstrosity with a chair, weakly trying to bat the thing away from Audrey. His rumpled face was ghastly pale and crunched up painfully, his lips were quivering, and silent tears were racing down his cheeks. Andrea was at the door, pressed up against it, straining to keep the monster from coming out.

"Mike, get out!" Andrea sobbed.  
"Audrey..." Michael choked out with a slight shake of his head, and swung at the tentacles again.  
"It's too late... and I can't keep it back for much longer. _Get out!_" Andrea nearly shrieked. "Jenny, get him out of here!"  
Jenny stepped forward, swallowing the rest of the screams that wanted to follow. She looked around for any kind of weapon she could use, but there was nothing. A desk, and a lamp. Nothing else. Michael was still swiping at it with the chair. And Audrey was horribly limp as the monster swung her around. Jenny hoped she was just unconscious.

"Enough! Let her go!" Jenny said loudly over Andrea's panting and Michael's quiet sobs.  
It didn't seem to work. Jenny would have thought it was Julian playing this game, his way of making a point to her that he didn't like her rejecting him. She thought that he would do as she said without question though, but the monster didn't let go. Maybe this wasn't Julian's doing...

Sheer insanity breathed through her. Jenny bit down hard on her lip, stepped into reach of the beastly tentacles, and managed to grab hold of Audrey's arm. She forcibly tugged her friend toward her, and the tentacles allowed her. And then Jenny was pulling the heavy slimy thing off of Audrey, yanking at it with both her arms, unwinding it. It yielded to her touch, and withdrew back into the closet. The bulging ceased, and Andrea slumped down to the floor in exhaustion.

Jenny was staring at Audrey, lying flat on the floor in front of her. Michael dropped to his knees beside her, curled into a ball, and wept. His sobs echoed eerily off the basement walls – it was one of the most horrible sounds Jenny had ever heard.

She was dead. The tentacle had crushed her to death; bone protruded through her cashmere blouse, along with pink flesh and drops of crimson. Her auburn hair was in disarray, her porcelain complexion drawn tight over bone. A little stream of blood had left a red trail from her cherry-clad lips down her chin, and her brown eyes were open and as glossy as fish eyes.

Jenny leaned closer with a trembling hand and carefully closed the dead girl's eyes. Then she wrapped her arms around Michael's shaking form, draping herself over him like she had with Tom, and she cried.


	15. Get The Ball Rolling

_...as you're ending, I'm about to begin...  
...my strength, his bane..._

_...and I will never give in..._

**~...~**

"Jenny..._Jenny_..." Hands were gently shaking her by the shoulders, and Jenny turned her tear stained face toward Andrea. The other girl had dropped to her knees beside them, looking pale and forlorn.

"Jenny...we have to get out of here," Andrea squeaked out, tears of terror frozen in her eyes.

"Audrey," her voice faltered. It was surreal. There was snarling behind the closet door, as though the monster was rearing itself up for another attack. Michael's heartbroken sobs sounded distant in her ears. Audrey's body looked more like a broken wax doll than an actual person. Andrea looked so fragile, Jenny thought she would disintegrate into smoke if she dared to touch her...

_What... you can keep..._

Jenny's head whipped around at the voice, and her eyes scanned the basement. There was no one else there, but that voice didn't belong to any of them, and it whispered right in her ear. A high pitched whistle sounded up inside her head.  
_I'm losing it,_ Jenny thought frantically, _I'm going insane. All this time here...and Audrey, oh Audrey... I'm losing my mind... I'm losing this batt- NO!_

The fuzzy shock gave way to a seething, burning coldness that started in the pit of her core; it anchored her emotions and let herself float back to the situation at hand. Her thoughts sharpened, and then she was back on her feet, pulling Michael up.

"Anny's right, we have to leave." Jenny said firmly. She shook him by the shoulders, and stared hard into his eyes. "Michael, listen to me! Everything is going to be okay, I promise."

Michael's dark eyes stared back at her blankly. Distraught fury crawled into his void expression, and he jerked away from her. "Everything is going to be okay? _Have you looked around_, Jenny? We're not in our own world! All this is _real_! Everybody we know is dead! How dare you even say everything will be okay?" Michael's raised, angry voice cracked and fresh tears gushed down his face. "This isn't a game. Audrey's not coming back."

He turned then, and went down on his knees beside Audrey. Jenny stared at him, feeling utterly indifferent to his reaction. "Michael, I'm trying to help you..."

"You know what?" Michael said, and his voice lowered. "Just go."

"But..."

"Audrey is dead. I could have saved her, and I didn't." Michael whispered to himself.

"Michael!" Jenny snapped. The closet door began to bulge, the snarling grew deeper.

"Jenny...we have to leave him." Andrea said beside her.

"No." Jenny shook her head.

"We have to leave him, or we're all dead!"

"I can't just..."

"We have no choice!" Andrea shrieked when the top hinge of the door popped off.

"He's my friend! I'm not –"

"He's my friend, too!" Andrea snapped, and tugged Jenny so hard she nearly lost her balance. "I'm going! You can stay here if you want but it will be pointless. You can't save someone that doesn't want to be saved!"

Andrea bounded up the stairs. Jenny stared at Michael for another moment, took a tentative step toward him. "Michael... I can fix things. I know I can, I just need to figure out how to..."

The bottom hinge snapped off and the door flew across the room. The edge of it slammed into Jenny's arm and knocked her back so hard she lost her breath. The monster nearly fell out of the closet in waves of its own flesh, reaching toward her. Instinct kicked in, and Jenny ran, taking the steps two at a time. Andrea was curled into a ball right outside the basement, a knife in her hand.

Jenny slammed the door shut and locked it securely. For a long time both girls stared at one another, breathing hard.

"Did it hurt you?" Andrea asked quietly, glancing at the arm Jenny was clutching.

"I'm okay." Jenny said with a shake of her head. She really wasn't. Her arm ached down to the bone, and she couldn't move it. "Anny... do you know how we can get out of here?"

"We can't." Andrea said. "There's no way out. Not unless he lets us go, or if we strike up a deal with one of his elders."

Her words sank in, and Jenny played with the idea despite her logic telling her it wasn't a very _good_ idea. "We can do that, can't we?" Jenny said uncertainly.

"What's the point?" Andrea asked, getting up and brushing past Jenny down the hallway. "We'll be jumping from one fire to the next."

Jenny licked her lips. "Then we have to run and hide."

"Don't turn this into a game!" Andrea whirled around to glare at her. "Playing hide and seek isn't going to get us anywhere!"

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Jenny fired back.

"I think we should get the stave of life and cut out all these –"

"_That's _a stupid idea." Jenny interrupted. "How are we going to get it? We don't even know where it is!"

"Then we'll find it."

"How?"

Andrea pursed her lips, and glared down at her feet helplessly. "I don't know. But that's all I've got. I'd rather take my chances to stay alive than sit around doing nothing but waiting for him to kill me off. It's not that crazy of an idea. I mean, we're_ in_ crazy-ville, if you haven't noticed. Anything is possible. "

"Anything is possible for them," Jenny said, gesturing toward the front door. "We are way out of our league here, Anny."

"Well, have you got any bright ideas?" Andrea snapped.

"Yeah, I do. I think we should fight. Fight our way out of here."

"I take back what I said about the crazy ideas working." Andrea said, scowling at her. "Like you said, we're out of our league. Nothing we do is going to hurt them."

"I didn't mean we're going to physically fight all the shadow men." Jenny said irritably."Of course we can't do that! I meant we can fight Julian."

"With frying pans and holy water?" Andrea said scathingly.

"I'm serious." Jenny frowned and stepped closer to her. "I know how to really hurt Julian."

**~...~**

**Prepare for some real horror in the next chapters folks! Sorry for the delay in updating D:**


	16. Whispers in the Dark

_...I'll tell you now I'm the one to survive...  
...you'll never break my faith or my stride..._

_...I'll have you choke on your own demise..._

**~...~**

The sky was black when Jenny and Andrea emerged from the house. Their glass slippers clicked across the front porch, and threatened to stick to the muddy surface at the bottom of the stairs. The western street that had been before was no longer. A vast forest shadowed in mist and moonlight stretched out before them in every direction.

Jenny pulled up her skirts and treaded further into the ominous wood. Andrea copied her and stayed right at her side. _We must look so out of place_, Jenny mused. Trudging through a murky forest dressed up in beautiful gowns that would have the Queen of England gaping, they certainly didn't fit the scene.

"I hope this works." Andrea muttered beside her.

Jenny kept turning her head, waiting to catch a glimpse of yellow eyes, or for Julian to appear dressed up as the Erl King. There was nothing but the sound of an owl softly hooting, and their footsteps crunching over bark. A chill danced up her back.

"It will work." Jenny whispered back.

"Do you know of any fairy tales where a princess goes bundu-bashing through the woods?" Andrea asked nervously.

"Not really." Jenny frowned. "Maybe Snow White?"

"Snow White wasn't a proper princess." Andrea said.

The trees reached to the invisible skies, their black trunks surrounding the two girls as they ventured deeper. Jenny felt trapped. Her heart was beating unpleasantly hard. But she needed to keep it together if she was going to pull this off, if she was going to play her cards right.

_"Someone else..."_

Jenny jumped and grabbed for Andrea's hand. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Andrea asked uncomfortably. "Is something following us?"

"N–" Jenny glanced over her shoulder and stumbled when she saw a legion of little creatures following them. At first she thought they were dwarves, like some sick joke. But they were too small and skinny to be dwarves. They looked more like deceased foetuses...

"Run!" Jenny cried, yanking her skirts up even higher to sprint.

"Damn it! If we didn't decide to get dressed in these things...we could have climbed a tree and... gotten away from them!" Andrea shouted somewhere to her left.

"We have to play the part!" Jenny hollered back defiantly.

They exchanged heated looks before picking up their pace. Jenny could smell them, like a piece of raw meat locked in a box and left in the sun to rot and decay; a pungent odour that tickled her gag reflexes and made her stomach knot. Worse yet – she could _hear_ them now. Their little feet sounded over the forest floor like a wave crashing, and she could hear small snorts and snarls fill the air.

_If they catch up, we're dead, Jenny._ But Julian will save us, Jenny thought furiously. _Not if he doesn't know what's going on. _No, this was part of the game. This was what Jenny wanted, what she needed. This was _perfect._ _But what if this isn't the game?_

Jenny's heart thundered in her ears. "Help!"

Something yanked her foot from underneath her and Jenny hit the ground flat. She lay dazed for a moment, staring at the leave strewn ground in front of her nose. The leaves looked like material...like golden velvet torn into strips. Some of them had silver drops that glowed in the moonlight.

Then they were all over her, little feet digging into her back, their sharp claws pulling her hair and tearing at her clothes. Jenny tried to bat them away with her good arm, and shrieked when something sharp sliced into her fingers. Blood gushed from the deep cuts. They weighed her down, and she could feel them become heavier, could hear more of them descending from all directions.

"Jenny!" Andrea's voice was faint beneath the cacophony of tiny growls resounding in her ears.

She reached out her arms, crying out at the pain, and tried to crawl away. Something cold and hard punched her in the back of her neck and she fell to the ground limply. Her eyes were watering, and she could feel their nails cutting deep into her back. It took a minute for her body to regain control and again she tried to get to her knees.

"Help!" Jenny screamed.

Her eye caught on a thick branch nearby. She didn't know if it had been there the whole time or whether it had just materialised out of nowhere, but she didn't quite care. She grabbed hold of it and flipped onto her back, swinging wildly at the little monsters. She hit a couple of them, and the others backed off slightly, snarling at her. Jenny scrambled to her feet and swung at them furiously.

"Get away!" She shrieked at them angrily, stomping toward them.

They seemed uncertain, immobile for a second before they scattered into the forest. Jenny let out her breath in an angry but relieved rush, and turned when Andrea called out.

"Jenny, watch out!"

Audrey was standing in front of Andrea with her arms spread wide, like a goalie dodging and weaving to keep her from getting past. Her head rolled disgustingly on her shoulders, and she seemed unsure on her feet.

"No!" Jenny breathed, shaking her head.

A hand gripped her shoulder. She jolted away from the touch, and stared in horror at Michael. There were gashes across the left side of his body, and his arm was missing. Jenny could see the large purple-red of his kidney, and the flabby off-white fat beneath his torn skin, and the shocking white of his ribs between the pink flesh. Half his face was ripped off.

"Michael..."Jenny wheezed out, staggering away from him.

_"Keep after..."_ a whisper in her ear.

"We've got to get out of the woods!" Andrea's shriek tore Jenny out of her terrified trance.

Her feet responded to the command before her mind caught up. They ran through the dimness, half-sobbing, half-dragging one another to keep up. They came to a halt some time later when Andrea veered off toward a tree and threw up. Jenny sank down against another tree trunk, unable to catch her breath, and not sure whether she wanted to carry on breathing.

They were malicious. Evil. Sadistic. Sick. But Jenny already knew that.  
They were going to pay for killing her friends and using them as puppets. _He_ was going to pay.

Movement caught the corner of her eye, and Jenny leapt back to her feet. She expected to see Audrey or Michael to come out of the shadows to grab her, but instead a pack of enormous black wolves emerged, bearing their menacing canines at her.

"Run!" Andrea gasped.

Jenny turned and ran straight into someone's chest. She stumbled back, and stared up at the deformed, frightening and familiar face of one of Julian's elders. His red eyes gleamed back down at her, and he opened his crocodile mouth to reveal black teeth in a sinister grin.

Andrea let out a shriek. Jenny got herself under control and flung herself back at the shadow man, clinging to him like he was her life buoy.

"Oh, my hero!" Jenny cried, in a genuinely quivering voice. "At last, you have come to save me!"

Jenny saw Andrea catch herself and slam right into Julian's chest. Jenny dipped herself back in a mock-faint, and quietly thanked whatever deity had pity on her that the shadow man caught her. This was not a twist in the game that any of them had expected. The shadow man before her seemed at a loss of what to do. Jenny forced herself not to wince when she put her one hand across her forehead, and lifted her good arm to caress the warped neck of the creature before her.

"I was so terribly scared," Jenny carried on when it pulled her against him. She dropped her voice into a softer tone – the kind of tone a lover would use. The one Julian used on her. "But now that you're here, I am indebted to you."

"Yessssss," the shadow man hissed, pleased.

"No!" Julian spoke up, and the shadow man froze.

"Yes. I will go with you to your fortress and repay you for your heroic deed." Jenny said loudly.

"_No,_ Jenny." Julian said sharply, appearing beside them. His hair flashed like quicksilver and his eyes burned into her with overwrought fury. "You're not going anywhere..."

"You wanted me to come play, so I did." Jenny cut him off with a sneer. "It's not my fault you were too late to save me."

"She's got a point," the elder grunted. "It's part of the game."

They started to move away, with one crocodile arm securely around Jenny's back, and Jenny still clinging to the shadow man. Julian stepped in their path.

"This is bullshit. Let her go or I'll rip you apart." Julian said quietly.

"I won the maiden fair," the shadow man roared back.

"The game is over. Leave her." Julian said.

"I think the girl should say who she prefers as her master." The shadow man said, and his glittering red eyes looked down at Jenny expectantly. "Who do you choose to go with?"

Jenny stared up at him for a long moment. She knew this was it. She had the right card, now she just had to play it right. She looked at Julian carefully. He was glaring at his elder, but when his gaze shifted to meet hers, the coldness in them softened. He reached his hand to her.

"Jenny, come home with me."

_"Giving it..." _that daunting whisper no one else seemed to hear but her.

Inexplicably, it reminded her of Mikael. They'd been in this exact same position before, with Jenny on Mikael's side, and Julian asking her to go with him instead. She'd said no then and it had made Julian furious.

_Say no again and he'll break_, Jenny thought with a vicious twitch of glee. Mikael had been beautiful. This shadow man was revolting. Jenny would still rather go with him than Julian. Say it, say it, say it.

"No," Jenny breathed softly, and smiled at Julian's bewildered gaze. "I think I'd rather go with you," she looked up into the shadow man's scarlet gaze when she said the last.

Lightning struck and blinded her for a split second. Jenny blinked away the after images, and found herself lying back on the ground. The elder shadow man was huddled up against a tree to her right, his screams punching through the air like glaciers cracking. His eyes were gouged out, and half his snout had been torn off.

Julian was hovering over the pitiful creature with his back to her, his shoulders heaving as he advanced on him. Andrea was suddenly beside Jenny, her eyes wide with disbelief, tugging her hands gently and nodding with her head behind them.

Come on, Andrea mouthed to her.

Jenny let her help her up, and then they were running once more. We can't outrun him, not here, Jenny thought. She turned her head to tell Andrea, and was once again blinded by a bright flash of light. This time when it wore off, there was nothing but a blackness so deep that it made her breath stop in her throat and made tears jump from her eyes.

"Anny?" Jenny hissed, afraid.

"I'm right here," Andrea whispered back.

"I can't see anything," Jenny said, and sobbed when she felt Andrea's hands grasp hold of her own.

_"What is it that you can..." _Jenny shuddered at the whisper. She couldn't tell whether it was in her head or in her ear anymore, but the voice was thrice as petrifying in this darkness. It had an unnaturally beautiful quality to it that made her muscles want to lock in fear.

"Anny?" Jenny whimpered.

"Yeah?"

_"Jenny..."_


	17. Trust

_...I make the angel scream, and the devil cry..._

**~...~**

"Did you hear that?" Jenny asked shakily. She squinted at the darkness, willing her eyes to adjust to the dim light, to no avail.

"Sssh," Andrea whispered sharply. "There's someone in the dark."

"Let's keep moving." Jenny whispered back, and wondered if she'd even heard her. Her voice was nearly gone, and it was getting hard to breathe. She hated this terrifying feeling.

"_What is it that you can keep after giving it to someone else_?" The voice was in her head now, distant yet clear, and Jenny froze in her tracks to survey the blackness around her warily.

"Anny, did you hear that voice?" Jenny hissed, heart thudding sickeningly in her chest. Nobody moved for a moment, and silence screamed back at them.

"Just keep wal..." Andrea started quietly.

The earth shook beneath them. _Really _shook, like a surreal earthquake – horror movie style. Cracks opened up in the floor, shining blinding white light up in the infinite darkness. All measures to be quiet and discreet flew out the door.

"Run!" Jenny screamed.

That's when Jenny lost track of Andrea. There was nothing to see in the dark except the cracks in the ground, nothing to be felt but the violent tremor, nothing to be heard but a dull, deafening groan from the world around her.

A floodlight flicked on right in front of her, revealing a brooding prince of darkness waiting for her. The light cast a crimson veil over his frost blonde hair, tinted his skin, soaked into his clothes like blood. His eyes were as piercing and blue as she'd ever seen them.

"I'm done with this, Jenny." Julian's voice was icy and drove daggers of fear into her heart. "If I can't have you, I will kill you."

Jenny's resolve tightened at his words. She'd vowed she would hurt him in every way possible, even if that meant she had to die. The bloodlust in his eyes kept her immobile, and when he got near enough, Jenny could see his shoulders shaking with restrained fury. He was going to lose it.

"_What is it that you can keep... after giving it to someone else?"_ The question again. The answer had to be important, Jenny felt it. She had to figure it out because it just might save her from certain death. She didn't understand how it could but she knew it simply would suffice as her lifeline in this situation. Though, her mind drew up a solid blank.

"_What is it..."_

"I don't know!" Jenny cried out with a sob, and staggered away from him.

Julian stopped in his tracks, and frowned softly. "What?"

"What is it that you can keep after giving it to someone else? I don't know the answer. _I don't know_." Jenny said, tears squeezing from her strained eyes.

Julian cocked his head to the side, studying her for a puzzled moment. "A riddle?"

Jenny choked back a sob.

Julian's entire demeanour changed in a fraction of a second, and his head snapped around. Jenny stumbled away, and watched in confused terror as he spun around, eyes feverishly scanning the darkness around him. He lingered there uncertainty, cast another glance at Jenny, and bolted in the opposite direction.

He was running. _Really_ running. Jenny didn't think he could move that fast. Her breath hitched in her chest, and she turned the other way in confusion. She blinked, stumped. Something was right in front of her. Something with an odd amber tinge, nearly invisible in the dark. Jenny reached her hand out toward it, wondering if it was her eyes playing tricks on her, and pressed her palm to it. Warm. Soft yet hard. She squinted at it, leaning closer, and started to move her hand across its surface. She realized it wasn't a something but a _someone_, the same instant strong fingers curled around her hand and a face loomed above her in the darkness. Hard blue eyes gazed back down at her. The world stopped for a heartbeat before she _recognized_ him.

"The answer is, _my word_." Mikael said softly, yet his voice seemed to carry in the darkness. "I told you I'd come for you."

"Mikael," Jenny gasped, stunned. She gripped the black material of his shirt, feeling the silken texture crushed in her hands but not quite believing it was real. "_I thought you were dead_."

His fingers curled around hers and he firmly pushed her hands away. He bent his head, face hovering inches from hers. He stared so deep into her eyes that Jenny forgot to breathe. His irises were exceptionally light – more silver than blue, and as hard as steel. A terror that paralysed all her muscles and threw her senses into extreme peaks wrapped around her.

"Where is Andrea?" He hissed in an insidious voice.

Jenny tried to answer but all that came out was a faint, "Ih…"

Mikael's eyes lifted from hers and glared at the inky darkness. A flash of lightning struck from out of nowhere, forking out in a thousand directions in a million shades of the rainbow. The next moment, the world around Jenny was ablaze with flames so hot they shone white and sent mushroom clouds of churning black smoke into the air. Unnatural screams froze Jenny's blood.

He brushed past her, and his movement caused a breeze colder than the icy winds that accompanied the shadow men. Jenny's legs caved in when it washed by her and she found herself sitting helpless on the hard cracked floor, flames whistling and snapping all around her with furious intensity, tears of sheer horror stuck in her eyes.

Yet she couldn't tear her gaze from Mikael. Even with his back to her, Jenny didn't feel safe this close to him. She didn't feel safe with him at all. He was worse than Julian – by far worse. Icy vibes rolled off him and crashed into her, keeping her limbs numb and dulling her survival instincts that would have had her running for shelter otherwise.

Mikael looked from side to side, and slowly turned around to give her a long slanted stare. His eyes were so light and bright, nearly the same heated white as the fire spread around them – and it burned into her just the same.

He licked his lips and faced her dead-on. They stared at one another for another moment in tension strewn silence.

"Jenny," Mikael said, and crouched down to her eye level. "Do you trust me?"

She could barely breathe in the stale air, and his proximity made her want to burst into tears. But somehow Jenny found the strength to nod at him, even though her gut was pounding at her common sense like a wild demon. _ Get away from him, get away, get away, Jenny RUN…_

She was in danger. She was the lamb caught in the lion's glare – the angry, starved king of his jungle was out for blood, and she was easy prey, helpless and terrified… and in the wrong place at the worst time imaginable.

Mikael cast his gaze downward, and Jenny felt the air rush back into her lungs in shaky gasps. Feeling returned to her arms and legs, and she was getting back control. She wanted to reach for him, shake him by the shoulder suddenly and make him believe that she _did_ trust him. Still, she couldn't force her hands to obey.

"Then run away from me, Jenny." Mikael said quietly. He looked at her, and there was death in his steady gaze. "Now."


	18. Liar, Liar, Set The World on Fire

_...my honoured brethren, we come together...  
...to unite as one, against those that are damned...  
...we show no mercy, for we have none..._

**~...~**

Her legs were unsteady and her body out of control, yet Jenny managed to do exactly what her instinct had been telling her to do. Aside from that, it wasn't easy to run away. There were enormous fissures spitting hot gas and tall flames that obscured any straight path for her. The heat was immense and caused her to reflexively back away and constantly change direction.

"Jenny!" Andrea cried and Jenny whirled around in the fiery hell.

"Andrea! Where are you?" Jenny tried to shout. The smoke made her voice choke on itself.

"Stay there! I'll come to you." Andrea called back.

Jenny turned in a slow circle, trying to locate where her voice had come from. The next moment someone was practically shoving her down from behind, pushing her forward unexpectedly. She sent an alarmed glance over her shoulder, catching herself in time. Andrea was behind her, her cheeks dancing with red shadows.

"Go! Hurry, Jenny, we've got to get out of here, right now!"

There was no need for further prompt. They pushed and pulled one another in their blind race through the burning world around them. Claws and fingers reached for their legs, and the cacophony of horrific screams picked up several notches. They drew up short when they came to an enormous river of bubbling red stretching into eternity before them.

"What...what's this?" Andrea exploded hysterically, waving her hands at the river. "This isn't supposed to... nothing is supposed to block our way out..."

A resounding hiss sounded up behind them. Jenny thought it sounded like a gas pipe leakage. She turned reluctantly, not wanting to see what the source of the daunting noise was.  
They were monsters. She couldn't even call them shadow men anymore. They were on fire, but the flames about them were black and silver. _Shadows and mist_, Jenny thought wildly as the creatures shakily moved toward them. Their mouth were pulled back in tight, horrendous grins that showed their gums and malicious intent.

"No! No, you can't touch us!" Andrea said.

The hissing intensified until Jenny felt compelled to cover her ears. "We need help!"

"We need no one!" Andrea snapped back, tracing something in the air above them.

"What are you doing?" Jenny had to shout to be heard over the din.

A large circle of ice manifested around them in answer to her question. The hissing became slightly muffled by the thickness of it, and Jenny nearly collapsed to the floor in total surprise.

"How did you do that?" Jenny whispered, staring at the still approaching monsters on the other side.

"Isa." Andrea's voice echoed in their ring of frosty protection. "Don't you know your runes?"

"Now what do we do?" Jenny asked, shaking her head in dazed panic. "We can't go anywhere!"

Andrea blinked at her, stumped. "Well... it was either I do this, or we get torched by those guys...or we boil alive in that river. Which would you have preferred, Jenny?"

"Or we could have called for help." Jenny said shakily.

"Help?" Andrea repeated, and took Jenny by the shoulders. "_Help?_ Jenny, _we_ are the only ones who will help us."

"But...Mikael is here. He'll help us."

"Pfft. Mikael will help us." Andrea repeated mockingly, and let go of Jenny. "Are you crazy?"

"He's here to save us. Isn't he?"

"Maybe."

Jenny felt her chest constrict at the curt reply. "He's on our side, Anny. He kept his promise, he came for us."

"Right." Andrea arched her eyebrows. "He came for us. In the Shadow World."

Jenny frowned at her in bewilderment. "You make it sound like a really bad thing. Andrea, he loves you, that's why he's here."

"I don't think you understand, Jenny." Andrea said softly, her eyes brimming with pity. "Mikael is evil."

"No, he's going to protect us..."

"He's _evil_, Jenny. When Mikael goes all darkside, not even I am safe. Look," Andrea said gently. "There's just you and me now. We're the only ones we can rely on for help. If Mikael is here like you say, he's more bent on hunting down Julian and reaping his revenge than getting you and me out of here."

"Then what do we do?" Jenny asked helplessly. She jolted away from the wall of ice when the monsters started thumping and scratching at it.

"We need to get to the doorway to our world."

"No, really?" Jenny snapped. "How are we supposed to do that if we don't know where it is? And how are we going to do that if we're _trapped in an ice bubble?_"

The words had barely left her lips before the ice around them cracked like a gunshot and one wall fell away from them in a wave of frost. The next moment, Julian was dragging a shrieking Andrea away.

"No!" Jenny screamed, and rushed after them.

"Let me go, let me go, let me go!" Andrea was scratching at his hands, digging her heels into the ground and struggling feverishly in his grip. The fiery monsters were slowly tailing them, echoing Andrea's cries mockingly. None of it fazed Julian.

"Julian! Stop!" Jenny panted out, reaching for Andrea's arm.

Something got hold of _her_ arm and tugged her back. Julian stopped and turned around at the same instant. Andrea's screams fell silent, and there were tears in her eyes as she stared back.

"I told you, _no_ Gorgons or Succubi." Julian said sharply. "It's cheating."

"And I told _you_ not to come near Anny." Mikael said bitterly. Jenny looked up at him, and stared too. There was no visible injury on him, but he wore the look of a severely battered veteran who'd had enough. "You never were a good listener."

"Get over yourself. "

"Because you think you're better than me?"

"You have no idea what I had to go through to be with Jenny." Julian growled. "I had to _fight_ to have another chance..."

"Who do you think you're talking to, kid? I died, too, remember you killed me?" Mikael said, giving him an indignant sideways look. "I had to get past that scaly faced Nidhogg to return to the world of the living more times than I can count. It's no big accomplishment, kid."

Julian pursed his lips grimly and glared back at him.

"Heck, let's attach being confronted by ol' Lucifer and God at the same time, to top it off. Ever had to go through anything like_ that_, kid? I tell ya, it's a lot worse than all nine levels of hell combined." Mikael added condescendingly.

"Everybody looked up to you. _I_ looked up to you," Julian said angrily. "Until you chose against our kind and decided to suck up to the 'good' guys instead. Your pride was your downfall. You thought you could have your way, in any realm, with anyone, because you thought you were a god."

Jenny shuddered when Mikael slid his hand down her arm and gently took hold of her hand. His skin was surprisingly cool against hers. Julian's eyes followed the movement, and his voice turned ugly.

"And you were wrong." Julian said, roughly wrenching Andrea further away from them.

"Please don't..." Andrea begged, trying to pry free of his grip. She looked from Julian to Mikael to Jenny, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Don't kill me, _please don't kill me_..."

"You couldn't be with Andrea. For someone who has unlimited wisdom you sure were a fool for this girl. She took our leader away from us." Julian growled, shaking Anny roughly. "She turned you into a blind idiot."

"Alright, alright, take it easy on her," Mikael said harshly. "Let's not break the merchandise."

His grip on her hand tightened when he said it, and Jenny winced, automatically trying to pull her hand from his. Mikael let out a steady sigh, and spoke in a light hearted tone.

"How about we call a truce here, kid? You hand me Andrea, I hand you Jenny. We go our separate ways."

"You think I'll give up that easily?" Julian spat. "I will _win_..."

"Mikael, _please_ do something!" Andrea said.

"Tsk, that's a shame, Julian," Mikael said playfully. "Really, it is. It's not a common occurrence for the daughters of men to carry the seed of our kind."

Julian paused and stared at Jenny suspiciously. "What?"

"You heard me." Mikael said icily. "But if you wanna be the cause of the little spawn's early demise, I won't stop you."

Jenny's breath caught in her throat when Mikael roughly pulled her closer to him and pressed his hand against her abdomen. His fingertips pushed hard against her, as if he was going to grab a fistful of her flesh and tear it out.

"Now, who wants to start digging first?" Mikael said, still in that creepy playful voice.

"No!" Julian exploded, and Mikael stopped.

"No what?" Mikael said irately.

"We'll switch." Julian said, staring at Jenny with wide eyes, and then turned determined gaze on Mikael. "We'll call a truce."


	19. Angel's Call

_...our enemy shall fall as we apprise..._

_...to claim our fate,  
now and forever,  
we'll be together...  
...in love and in hate..._

**~...~**

Mikael didn't move his hand away from Jenny's abdomen, though his touch on her skin eased from fierce to gentle. His eyes were as light as bleached steel when he looked down at Jenny.

"I don't know," Mikael drawled slowly, and flashed Julian a flat glare. "I think I'd rather keep her to myself."

"What?" Andrea hiccupped, nearly collapsing against Julian.

"_What_?" Julian echoed. Icy fury laced the shadows across his face and Jenny felt an involuntary fluttering in her chest at his beauty. "You just proposed we do a trade..."

"I'm just screwing with you, kid." Mikael said. He sighed, and nodded at Andrea. "Give me mine, I'll give you yours."

"But _Mikael..." _Andrea started.

"_Silenti, meus delicia_," he cut her off with a playful wink. "Don't exert yourself, you've been enough trouble as it is."

Andrea quieted down and her face turned as red as the flames snapping and dancing around them. He started to move his hand away but paused when Jenny grabbed hold of it tightly. Her nails dug into his skin and she gripped his long fingers hard enough for her hand to go numb and her knuckles to turn white.

"You can't be serious?" Jenny hissed up at him.

"Done." Julian said coldly, practically throwing Andrea at them.

She stumbled and would have thoroughly face-planted if Mikael hadn't reached out with lightning reflexes, easing out of Jenny's death grip like a bar of soap, and pulled her to him. Jenny stood staring at them with round eyes – Andrea the battered maiden in her torn and scorched gold gown, strands of honey blonde hair blowing wildly around her delicately flushed face in the invisible heat waves from the fire, and Mikael dressed in black silk with his strong arms holding her close to him, protectively, possessively, and the fire in his eyes was that of any enraged prince charming staring down the evil dragon.

They made the picture perfect couple – and Jenny could see what it was that Julian had wanted to take for himself, what it was that he had wanted to break forever. They were practically glowing with warmth in one another's arms – a warmth that emanated from inside of them, haloing them in a bubble of something hotter than the flames around them, something stronger – something heavenly. Something that didn't belong in a hellhole like this, and most certainly shouldn't be possible given their immediate situation.

Julian was watching them with calloused gaze, staring at them so steadily that Jenny wondered whether he was looking through them. He blinked, his heavy lids drooping shut over piercing blue before turning the brilliance of those eyes on her – and Jenny felt the world around her splinter like glass. He was going to kill her – if he couldn't have her, or trust her, or break _her_ – he'd kill her. Jenny knew this just as she'd known he was there watching from the shadows of her room since she was a kid. Goosebumps flooded her skin and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end when Julian motioned to her.

"Mikael, you _can't_ let him take her..." Andrea was pleading, but Mikael only held her tighter, hushing her in loving tones.

"This is the way things are going to play out, Anny," Mikael said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

"But Mikael, he's going to hurt her..."

"Andrea, for the love of all things silent, will you shut up? Come on, let's go, we're done here," Mikael interrupted.

Jenny watched, numb and breathless, as Mikael half-carried Andrea in the opposite direction. She didn't turn until she felt a soft cool touch to her cheek, and she jolted away from Julian in terror.

"Julian," she whispered thinly.

"I love you more than you will ever understand," Julian murmured. He wouldn't look her in the eye, but his fingers were softly weaving through her hair and he was marvelling at it. "Hair like liquid amber..." He picked up her shaking hand – Jenny tried not to wince – and gently traced the lines of her palm with a fingertip, "and your skin glows... did I ever tell you that you remind me of a flood of sunshine?"

He looked up at her then, and the intensity of his gaze made her want to run away. Jenny tried to pull her hand from his grasp but cried out in pain when he didn't let go. Pain seared from her shoulder down to her elbow and up into her head, bringing with it a dizzying sensation.

His fingers were light against her temple suddenly, and his concerned features swam before her eyes. She didn't realize she'd blacked out until the world clicked back in place around her and Jenny found herself half-lying on the cracked ground, half collapsed in Julian's arms.

"Jenny, are you hurt?" Julian asked, surprised and worried. His eyes turned hard before she could catch her breath to answer, and his head snapped up.

Jenny followed his gaze, still slightly disoriented, and saw Mikael and Andrea in the far distance, nearly obscured by the tall flames. There was an explosion of white – Jenny's eyes adjusted to the light a lot quicker this time – and she saw Andrea walking beside Mikael. And then she saw Andrea falling, collapsing to the ground suddenly and ungracefully, and Mikael reaching out to catch her limp and – yes, definitely lifeless – body.

"No..."Jenny said hoarsely, staring in horror, and then she was trying to lash out at Julian.  
It wasn't easy to do because her one arm was too painful to lift and the other was trapped against his body. Julian scooped her into his arms and rose smoothly to his feet. He turned – and then Jenny fell and hit the ground hard on her spine. Julian was several feet away from her also on his rump, shaking his head in surprise.

What happened next took a matter of seconds, and Jenny's mind threatened to blank out from the severity of the impossible. Arms were scooping her up from the ground, and Mikael's determined face filled her vision. Julian scrambled to his feet just as the air around them started to crackle with black electricity. The next second Jenny was on her feet and being passed from person to person, handed down through a crowd that had gathered under a clear, chilly night in an otherwise deserted parking lot.

The parking lot outside of Disneyland Park, Jenny grasped slowly. And some of the faces passing by her were familiar – that pale girl was Shelly, and the girl with the striking features was Amy, and the boy with the friendly dark eyes was Ronnie – and they were all human, Jenny thought wildly. They were all young, and human and _unarmed_ – and Julian was going to come after her with all the fury of hell behind him...

Jenny heard his laughter somewhere behind her – it was cold, beautiful and terrifying. She tried to look over her shoulder, helpless as the people around her relentlessly kept passing her along like some prized treasure rather than a human being.

"You bring me _here_? You know you're bound by the spiteful laws of some other God, but I'm not, Mikael. You're making this too easy for me," Julian mocked with sadistic glee, his words echoing across the lot.

Then Mikael was in front of her, pulling her down into a crouch along with him. He didn't look afraid – in fact, he looked quite smug.

"Mikael... Anny," Jenny choked out, reaching to touch the dried streaks down his cheeks.

His eyes were bloodshot and swollen, and fresh tears were gathering in the corners when he looked back at her. His eyes were almost too blue – an impossibly beautiful shattered blue – haloed with his heartache. But there was the small, oddly satisfied, ghost of a smile across his lips that threw Jenny.

"She's in good hands now," Mikael said, and his voice cracked. He diverted his gaze to the ground between them and wiped at his nose with his sleeve.

"Mikael," Jenny said softly, putting her hand on his shoulder, trying to keep her own emotions in check. "We have to run. We have to get away from here before Julian..."

"Don't worry about him. We're safe right here," Mikael said quietly, and gently took her hand. "As long as you're right here next to me, everything is going to be okay."

"We have to go now," Jenny said, desperate and afraid of the look on his face. "You can't protect us here."

"No, but _they_ can." Mikael said.

Jenny stared at his bowed head and felt a flare of doom. "They're only human. What can a few humans possibly do to save us from a devil?"

"No, Jenny. They're not, but _you're _human," Mikael sighed heavily, "I told you before you can wipe him clean off the face of the world if you put your mind to it. Why won't you believe me?"

"But _how_?" Jenny snapped. "You're not making any sense, we need to get out of here. _We need to get all these people out of here._"

"They're not people," Mikael fired back and looked her in the eye. "They're not _my_ army, they're not following _my_ orders. I'm just one of their objectives. They're meant to keep _me_ in line."

"What are you talking about?" Jenny asked, scowling hard at him.

"He's the guy in the charge." Mikael said.

Another presence joined them before Mikael finished speaking, and Jenny stared at the average looking guy. His hair was black and short, his face long and pleasant – but it was his eyes that told her exactly what he was. Golden haloes that burned into her, too beautiful to be real, too vibrant, and she could see immense power brimming in their depths. A power as ancient as Julian's, but thrice as strong and thrice as frightening. It made her look away abruptly, forced her to tumble from her crouch into a kneeling posture.

"My purpose is to observe and assure that the events that follow from hereon are according to plan," the guy said in a soft voice that seemed to resound in Jenny's head. "I am not here to intervene."

"But you're going to play ref, right?" Mikael asked with a chuckle, then added quickly with a pale, "I'm just kidding."

"I don't see the punch line," the guy retorted with a laugh in his voice, "You've adhered to the rules, Mikael, you have earned our favour."

"I tried," Mikael shrugged with a weak smile, and looked at Jenny almost shyly.

Jenny was hauled to her feet abruptly and pulled into an iron grip against Julian's chest. "You have no business with the girl," Julian ground out in a voice flooded with so much malice and hatred that it made tears leap to Jenny's eyes.

The guy remained crouched, merely staring back at them with an unreadable mask. It was clear that Julian had spoken to the stranger, but it was Mikael who climbed back to his feet and responded.

"You know you sound like a little irritating buzzing bee to them, don't you?" Mikael said, gesturing to the crowd around him before pinching his fingers together and waving it in a circle next to his ear. "Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."

"You can't have her. She's mine!" Julian growled, holding Jenny so tight that she thought he might actually crush her to death. She couldn't breathe, and it _hurt_. Jenny frantically clawed at his arms even as shadows entered her vision and started to steal her away. Her lungs started to burn after a few seconds, and her struggling became more severe, and _why were they just standing there watching?_ She couldn't even cry for help, and Julian's death grip didn't loosen even a fraction.

So this is it, Jenny acknowledged somewhere between the terrified voice screaming inside of her and the coming embrace of Death. This was how it was going to end, she was going to lose, again, for good this–

"Wrong, asshole," a breathy voice gasped. It sounded familiar, but Jenny's mind was starting to blank out any fragment of logic. "Can't have what isn't yours for the taking."

And then the pressure around her disappeared and Jenny collapsed into a pair of thin smoky grey arms. She blinked up at the face staring down at her with night dark eyes and grim lips. "I gotcha, Sunshine."

"Dee?" Jenny's voice hitched in her swollen throat. She turned her head and stared, dazed, as a smoky Tom faced off with Julian. _Oh, Tom. _Something swelled inside of her chest and broke, and then Jenny was scrambling to her feet, dazed and crying and elated all at once.

"Tom!"

Julian looked away from the blurry phenomena in front of him to glare at Jenny. "He's not really here," Julian sneered back at her.

Jenny stumbled to an uncertain halt even as the figure of Tom solidified in the minute that Julian was distracted. He held something long and flat and glowing like moonbeams in his hand, and he was pulling his arm back, his handsome face set, his hazel eyes hard as stone – and there was that devil-may-care smile on his familiar lips that sent Jenny's head spinning.

"Neither are you," Tom bit back.

He moved the instant Julian looked back at him. The stave in Tom's hand sharpened as he brought it forward, and time seemed to get stuck when the edge plunged deep into Julian's chest and right through him until Jenny could see it protrude from his back.

"No matter how many times you try to take Jenny, I will be there _every time_," Tom spat in Julian's shocked, pale face, "And I _will_ stop you."

Julian grunted in pain. Tom thrust the stave in further with vicious anger before ripping it from the shadow man's chest. Julian's body disintegrated into mist and shadows before it could hit the ground – and then the world started whirling around Jenny in complete and total chaos. Mikael was suddenly beside her, hovering over her.

"Close your eyes," he whispered against her ear, his breath hot and ticklish. Jenny obeyed, clutching back at him for all she was worth as unseen forces tugged and pushed and prodded and whipped every part of her.

He pulled her closer, gently, and his physique absorbed most of the beating, shielding her as best he could.

Everything stopped.

Jenny opened her eyes, and found herself alone. She was standing on her front porch, staring down at Cossette blankly. The cat was hissing at her unpleasantly.  
Jenny shook her head, dazed, and looked around her.  
Dusk had settled. It was a beautiful night with a full moon, and it was _cold._ She stepped into the house, uncertain of what else to do or even in which world she was. She heard noise from the kitchen, and headed toward it at a gallop.

Jenny stared. A girl as beautiful as an African priestess was sitting on the counter, one long leg dangling, the other braced against her mother's blondwood kitchen table. She was sipping a can of Carbo Force, and wearing a wicked smile on her face. The other occupant was decked out in a black-and-white houndstooth-check jacket and Channel earrings, hustling about with utensils over a wok with sizzling pork, auburn hair glowing in the kitchen light.

It was them – Dee and Audrey, their younger selves, and Jenny would never forget exactly what night it was, or why they were here, because it was the night everything had been set in motion. Tom's seventeenth birthday, the game store, Julian. Only, with a quick look over her shoulder, she confirmed that there was no glossy white box on the coffee table in the living room.

_I can make your every wish come true, Jenny, _Mikael's voice was faint and fading fast from her memory bank, but she remembered the trade she had made with the most powerful shadow being alive.

And she knew that Mikael had kept his promise.

**~...~**

**WHOOT! This chappie is just for you Raven *celebrates 1 year friendship*  
Now you owe me...no no, I'm just kidding ;)**


	20. When It All Comes Back Again

_...they will see, we'll fight until eternity,  
come with me, we'll stand and fight together...  
... through our strength we'll make a better day tomorrow...  
_**~...~**

Jenny licked her lips and put the red felt tip pen against the glossy paper of their family calendar. She circled the date and stepped back to study it. A smile of satisfaction lit up her face. It wasn't so much a reminder that it was Tom's eighteenth birthday the next day as it was a victorious day to commemorate for Jenny. One she would relish every year and celebrate with more sentiments than anyone else would ever care to understand.

The cold snap was to stay at bay until after the weekend which worked well with Jenny's plans. She had everything organised for the day, and even though it was just their group getting together, she didn't want to be running into _anything_ out of desperation at the last minute. Which was why she was going to the public mall this afternoon, armed with a list of snacks, drinks, a movie or two, and a game of some sort. _A safe game_, Jenny thought firmly as she headed out of the house.

It was a beautiful day outside with clear blue skies and bird song. The October breeze was a soft caress against her cheeks, moving through her hair like smooth invisible fingers. There was a skip in her walk, and a small smile on her face that she couldn't turn off.

Today was a good day. Tomorrow was going to be even better. She could feel it in the pores of her skin and in the beat of her heart.

The mall was busy with people grocery shopping. Hassled parents with screaming toddlers in trolleys rushed past her out of the supermarket section. Jenny turned in the opposite direction of the supermarket toward the not-so-crammed and quieter parts of the mall. She paused to gaze at white Irises in a glass vase in the display window of a French decor store. She watched a few young couples having fun on the indoor ice rink. The smell of hotdogs filled her with sweet childhood memories when she passed by a junk-food outlet.

Her mood was light when she stepped into Games –R – Us. There were few kids in the store itself, and when Jenny walked up to the brightly coloured counter with Modern Cluedo under her arm, there was no unearthly boy to seduce her. Only a tired looking girl with a friendly smile and a polite manner.

Jenny headed for the supermarket next to find that most of the foot traffic had fizzled out. She did her shopping fast and efficient, going straight for the right aisles and getting what she wanted without idling or getting distracted.

Why the rush? She wondered as she reached for a pack of Pringles. There was no need for it. Nothing was chasing her. It was over.

_But that's what I thought last time_. Jenny swatted the thought away instantly. This was ridiculous, she was getting jittery for no reason. Tomorrow was going to be a _good_ day, because she had Tom and he loved her, and there was nothing in this world – or any other world – that could ever change that.

Jenny put the packet in her basket and turned, satisfied to have silenced the paranoia. Though her mood had been dented a bit. She found herself wanting to glance over her shoulder – just to make sure no one was following her. No one was watching her.

She aimed for the front of the store, now eager to get the shopping done and go home and have Tom's secure arms around her. That's all she needed, all she wanted, right now.

Her heart nearly caved in when a tall figure rounded the corner in front of her and nearly knocked her over. Hands steadied her quickly, and Jenny felt an involuntary shriek bubble up her throat and through her lips when she stared back into surprised blue eyes.

"Sorry, gah, damn it," the guy spoke, and his voice was different – and Jenny realised _who_ she'd run into. The relief made her physically slump in his arms as he steadied her. "I didn't...so sorry."

"Mikael?" Jenny breathed, her relief giving way to real concern when she noted his eyes darting around wildly, his expression strained. He barely looked at her.

"I...uh...pardon?" He was moving away from her, staring down the aisle, but paused to give her another surprised look.

"Mikael... I... where have you been? I have... so many things I want to ask you!" Jenny said, fully recovering from her fright.

"I'm sorry," he said, holding up a finger to stop her. "I think you've got me mistaken for somebody else. Do I know you?"

Jenny blinked and stared at him. "Yes. Yes, you do."

"Eh...mind refreshing my memory there, goldie locks? It's...uh...not what it used to be," Mikael said and flashed a half-smile at her.

"You don't remember me? The Shadow World... Julian and... and Andrea, you don't remember Andrea?" Jenny asked slowly, frowning softly.

Mikael stared back at her with a perplexed expression. "_Andrea_?"

"_Yes_, we were friends. You knew her since she was a kid –"

"Have you...what are you _doing_, Mikael?" A familiar voice made both their heads whip to the side.

Jenny gasped in shock and happiness. Andrea was standing there with her hands on her hips, handbag dangling over one shoulder and a packet of sweet-and-sour liquorice sticks in her hand. She didn't look happy to see Jenny, though.

"I'm...I'm doing what you said!" Mikael replied, and sent Jenny another uncertain look. "Sorry, lady."

"But," Jenny said when he jogged down the aisle. She turned to Andrea, and folded her arms across her chest. "You don't remember me either, do you?"

"Uh," Andrea drawled, and stared at Jenny. "No _but_ we might be related. Good grief, I thought people were joking when they said everyone has a twin somewhere in the world."

"We're not related. We used to be friends," Jenny said quietly.

"Right," Andrea arched an eyebrow and nodded her head. "Right, okay. This is weird. I'm sorry but...you know... I'm not one for awkward situations so... sorry."

Jenny watched her gesturing and backtracking as she explained, and then Mikael's triumphant cry sounded up in the aisle behind Jenny along with a wild childish giggle. The next minute Mikael had appeared, a baby in his arms with black stains on the knees and toes of its one-piece outfit.

"Found the little bugger," Mikael declared with a smirk, "He was crawling his way down to the frozen foods."

"He was _not_," Andrea chided, linking her arm through Mikael's.

"Yeah, he was. I think he was hinting..."

"We're not getting frozen pizzas. It gave you food poisoning last time, you idiot," Andrea said as they walked toward the dairy side of the market, leaving Jenny staring after them for a long moment.

Jenny finally turned and went to pay for her goods, and sent another glance at the store before stepping out through the glass sliding doors.

**~...~**

"Is she gone?" Andrea hissed at Mikael as she scrounged through the pile of cheeses before her.

"Eh...yeah, she just went out," Mikael said and sighed. "I told you we should move to some island. Then things like _this_ wouldn't happen."

"_What_ island, Mikael?" Andrea snorted.

"I don't know, we can have our pick between the 1000 Islands, can't we?" Mikael said, shifting the wriggling baby from his one arm to the other.

"You're such a dreamer, my love."

"That's not the answer I was fishing for."

"Do you think she caught on to us?" Andrea asked, picking out a large square Cheddar and several smaller Mozzarella's.

"Well if she did, she probably would have followed us," Mikael said and his tone turned condescending, "She's the type who would do that. _Oh, but I want to be your friend, we've been through so much together, oh, please let me make it up to you for saving my friends..._"

"Shut up," Andrea chuckled, turning to look up at him.

"You know I'm right. She's just _too_ good. There's something wrong with that girl," Mikael said, staring toward the doors before looking down at Andrea with a quirk of his lip. "It sickens me."

"Remember what we talked about?" Andrea sighed, shaking her head at him. "If you don't have anything nice to say then just shut up."

"This place is making me and Kamen feel claustrophobic. We'll go wait in the car, okay?" It was more a statement than a question, and he cut off her response with a quick, chaste kiss before walking toward the exit.


	21. Musings of a Shadow Man

**EPILOGUE**

**

* * *

**

_We shall never surrender._

**~...~**

His pride hurt.  
He'd been too slow to react – too slow to catch on.  
He'd been outwitted, Julian would admit that much, only because Jenny had been the one to outwit him.  
He'd underestimated her again.  
No. That wasn't it.  
He'd underestimated the strength of her will joined with Mikael's.  
_Tom_. Of all things.  
He'd been right that it was a mere memory Mikael had sucked out of Jenny's mind.  
Not a memory. A dream. A fantasy. Jenny's one dream come true – to have Prince Douche-bag defeat _him_. The image hadn't been real.  
But the stave sure as hell was.  
He should have known Mikael would go to extremes. He always did when he was backed into a corner.  
Yet Julian couldn't have foreseen the move, never could have anticipated that Mikael would use _Jenny_ to banish him into the Dark Realm – the Limbo between Niflheim and Midgar destined for troublesome Shadow Men. The rune stave through the chest was the quickest and most painful method of implementing the punishment.

_Punishment._ He didn't deserve to be scolded like this, like a mere child. Mikael would leave him here for a century – for longer – he was that merciless.  
Given, he could still watch Jenny from the shadows. Follow her, stalk her – but he couldn't interact with her, couldn't even send a whisper to her. That's what was a pain in this realm. He was bound by it.  
Watching Jenny wasn't going to cut it.  
Waiting for Mikael wasn't an option either.  
Julian was going to claw his way out of this abyss and seek revenge on that moron. Show him exactly what Julian was capable of – and he could do so fearlessly, with every vicious fibre and dark malice within his core.  
He wouldn't kill him. No, something that isn't born can't die.  
But he would pay.

Then he would hunt down Jenny...  
...and take her.

-End-

**...pfft, like I would actually kill off Julian (are you INSANE?)  
Requests for a continuation, or another addition, with the characters involved in this fic will be considered. Suggestions/ plot bunnies are welcome too.  
Otherwise, thank you for reading, and thank you for your lovely reviews ^_^  
**


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